


Redemption By Blood

by AlexRuby



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Adult Content, Angst, Blood and Gore, Dubious Consent, Every Other Damn Vampire Trope You Can Imagine, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, M/M, POV Alternating, POV First Person, Rape/Non-con Elements, Redemption, Self-Hatred, Sexual Coercion, Vampires, Vampiric Thrall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2019-10-06 23:02:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 72,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17354273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexRuby/pseuds/AlexRuby
Summary: Nate Pendleton was on the road to having a happy life.  He had a beautiful wife, a healthy infant son, a steady job, and a comfortable house in a good neighborhood.  He was living the American Dream. But the night before the bombs fell, Nathan’s luck runs out.  He is attacked by a monster wearing the face of a man and now, 212 years later, Nate runs across the one woman he thought he would never see again on the arm of a synth detective.  Can Nate overcome his bloodlust, anger, betrayal, and longing, or will he cave into his darker nature and become the very thing he hates?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m a sucker (pun intended) for all things vampire, so this plot bunny was too good to ignore when it popped into my head. Please head the tags and the warnings. This story will be dark and its themes are definitely adult. I will tag each chapter in the notes if there is questionable or explicit content. The characters in this story are not related to my characters from “A Woman Out of Time” series despite having the same names. 
> 
> Feedback of all types is appreciated! I hope you enjoy

October 22nd 2077

I adjusted the brim of my hat so it shielded the bitter autumn wind from wiping at my face as I walked through the streets of downtown Boston. The golden glow of the setting sun reflected off the perfectly-polished windows of the Boston high rises. Bodies jostled against mine as the crowd migrated like cattle towards the subway stations to go home for the evening.

After spending nine months in the frozen mountains in Anchorage, coming home to Boston was still an adjustment I was trying to make. The medical examiner's office for the Boston Police Department was nice enough to reinstate my job when I came back from my tour of duty, but I also think they were just glad to have another knowledgeable and capable hand in the morgue to deal with all of the bodies that Eddie Winter's gang was sending in.

On top of that, the anti-military sentiment amid the bubbling tensions over the whispers of a possible nuclear strike made me sometimes thankful that the majority of the people I saw during the day couldn't talk my ear off about the Red sympathizers or about possible - no, eminent - nuclear annihilation. Out in the streets, however, American citizens put their first amendment right to use. Protests, sit-ins, and strikes were a daily occurrence and today was no different.

Protest signs reading MAKE LOVE NOT WAR, WE'RE THE REAL ENEMY, and UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU FOR AMERICA'S DESTRUCTION were bouncing erratically as the protestors hooked themselves together in a human chain and blocked the entrance to the subway. Another group of people, working men and women still clad in their business suits and dresses, were yelling insults at the protestors and throwing rocks and mud at them.

"God damn Red-lovin' bastards." A tall man spat in between puffs on a menthol cigarette.

The woman he was with tutted her disapproval and they both crossed the busy street as cars and buses honked in outrage.

To compound the situation, a group of draft dodgers and military men who had gone AWOL were chanting in the street while waving the American flag with a large black anarchist symbol spray painted onto the fabric.

"Hey. Ho. We won't go! Hey. Ho. We won't go!" chanted the military deserters.

"You fucking traitors!" A drunk man snarled hurling a beer bottle over the cars. The bottle shattered, a large man wearing the insignia of a corporal on his chest fell like a ton of bricks, and his compatriots crossed into traffic to attack.

Bodies jostled against me as some people ran to see the fight while others fled in the opposite direction. I was lost in a sea of fear and anger.

I tried to push my way towards an alleyway to escape but the crowd prevented me from cutting through them without getting trampled. Just then, a hand tugged me from the crowd and pulled me around a wall and beneath a fiberglass bus stop awning.

"Alright there?" The voice asked.

I glanced up into my savior's face and saw his golden-hazel eyes were red-rimmed and sleep deprived. Wrinkles from stress and grief permanently aged his face and although he couldn't be more than thirty or thirty-five, he was greying at the temples. It was a face I had seen quite a bit of over these last couple of weeks.

"Thanks detective." I said.

"Call me Nick. Please." He grunted. "No need to stand on occasion for my account."

He offered me a cigarette which I politely waved off. He light the stick and took a few deep drags from its end before exhaling the smoke out in a long whoosh like a car exhaust.

"Seem's the whole world's goin' crazy." He observed. "The protests have been getting worse. Our cells are filled with people who seem to be lookin' for any excuse to go off on this or that."

"That's war for you." I remarked. "Never really changes I guess. The same kind of thing happened with Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm …" My voice trailed off and I sighed.

I heard indistinct yelling and the shrill whistles from the local police trying to keep the peace. Cars honked even louder as though the force from their horns on their own could blow the protestors away.

"You doin' okay there Doc?" Nick asked.

I met the other man's gaze and smiled but it was hollow and thin. "It's been a busy day at the coroner's office. I'm dead on my feet if you'll pardon the pun."

Nick swallowed thickly and looked down at his shoes. At first, I didn't understand how I had offended him, but then I felt like the biggest ass in the world.

Just last week, the commissioner for the Boston Police Department and the BADTFL closed the book on the Eddie Winter's case. A week before that, I personally attended to the body of Jennifer Land: it was a single shotgun blast to the abdomen if I remember correctly. Nick Valentine had come in to corroborate her identity and left when Captain Widmark and a security guard dragged him out of my lab kicking and screaming.

"Hey…I uh. I'm sorry. That was a poor choice of words on my part."

Nick shook his head, "It's the least I deserve after what I did to your lab. Don't worry about it."

He coughed and shifted uncomfortably beside me. He chewed on his lip until it was slightly swollen and red.

"Are you doing okay?" I asked, echoing his question to me.

"No." His voice was dry and emotionless. "But the Captain's got me seein' someone. Some fast boys down at the CIT are giving me a brain scan. They say I have PTSD or something funny like that."

I nodded. "I served in the war. I was a combat medic for the 2nd Batttalion, 108th Infantry. I saw good soldiers die right in front of me. Seeing death never really leaves you."

Valentine looked at me. He was half a head taller than I was but his gaze, how his eyes seemed to glow beneath his fedora, made me feel like I was a child.

"I'll never stop thinking of her." He whispered.

"I'm sorry." But I knew my condolence was paper thin.

He cleared his throat, looked away, and sniffled heavily. "So — ah — how's the wife? You have a kid now don't ya?"

"Yeah. Shaun. He's getting big. He'll be ten months old next week. And Nora's doing well. I bought her one of those RobCo Mister Handys for her birthday. He's been a big help around the house so Nora can work from home. I know she misses the drama of the courtroom."

Nick nodded, "And the courtroom misses her. The shmuck they have in her place couldn't sell bread to a starving man."

The detective flicked his cigarette onto the ground and crushed it with his heel. Silence fell between us and the guilt over me going home to my wife while he went home to an empty apartment gnawed at my chest.

"Hey. Why don't you come over for dinner? Nora's making lasagna." I said. "I'm sure she'd love to hear all about the goings on down at City Hall. Being cooped up in the lab all day means I'm often left outta the juicy gossip."

"Well — I — I dunno if —" He mumbled, grasping for an excuse.

"I insist. It's a Saturday night and I have two six packs of Gwinnett Stout in the fridge that I've been thinking about dipping into."

Now the detective looked embarrassed, "No really…that's a nice offer but I can't. I — uh — I have an appointment. You know … one of them court-ordered ones."

"A rain check then?" I replied with a smile. "You know. Just so you know there's not bad blood over … what happened."

The larger man sighed, "Yeah. Rain check, then."

The noises from the street had lessened considerably and I poked my head out from the bus stop awing. Half a dozen cops were arresting protesters from both sides; the rest of the mob had scattered to the wind and the sidewalk was back to its usual hustle and bustle traffic.

"Well I think the angry mob has dispersed enough for me to head on home. Take care Detective." I said.

He nodded at me, the embers on his freshly lit cigarette glowed like a small orange star, "Watch yourself out there Doc."

I waved farewell and walked down Third Street at a brisk pace. I checked my watch and saw that I had missed the 6:15 train so I'd either have to walk four blocks to Jury Street station or catch a bus for the long trip back home.

The Boston Library sat on my left. It's floodlights illuminated the marble pillars and the banners which advertised their newest exhibition: The American Revolution's Lost Secrets. Patriotic banners hung next to red and blue flags that depicted the profiles of our Founding Fathers. I made a mental note to bring Nora here on tomorrow for their matinee hours. I would probably want to blow my brains within the hour, but Nora was the biggest history buff that I knew.

I stopped at a phone booth outside the train station and dropped two dimes in and typed in our landline phone number.

Nora answered on the first ring.

"Hey hon," I replied.

"Hey." Her voice was tight with worry. "Are you doing okay? Are you running late at work?"

"Yeah. A huge fight broke out in the street which made me miss my train. I'm going to cut through the alley and take the subway from Park Street station. I should be home around seven-thirty."

"Okay. Just hurry home." I heard Shaun's squeals and giggles in the background. Nora chuckled, "He knows I'm talking to you".

Daddy's coming home soon sweetie." She cooed.

"Shaun is learning new words every minute it seems. Today he said 'Coddy' I think he's confusing you and Codsworth actually, but Codsworth gets a kick out of it."

I sighed and felt slightly ashamed. "Hon, I'm sorry. I know I've been working a lot. This whole Eddie Winters case is sending a lot of guys into the morgue and the DA is breathing down our neck for the autopsies. And after the —"

"— I know. I know." She replied. Her voice was soothing. "Just get home soon, okay? Now that Shaun's been sleeping through the night, I think we might finally have some uninterrupted alone time."

Her voice trailed off seductively and I picked up my pace with urgency. "I'll be home soon. I promise. I love you."

"I love you too. Hey, maybe while on your way home, you can practice your speech for the Veteran's address tomorrow night so you wont be so nervous."

I groaned but I knew she was right. The Director of the Women's Veteran's Auxiliary had asked me personally to give a speech in honor of the fallen and in support of the men and women who were still stationed overseas as they were having a mass memorial for the men and women who were confirmed dead or who were still missing in action. The affair would be somber, so it was important that I didn't screw it up.

"Alright. I'll practice on the subway home." I promised. "See you soon."

"See you soon, babe. I love you."

When she hung up, I picked up my pace and cut through the closest alleyway to avoid the foot traffic. Nearby, a homeless man was passed out on a flattened cardboard box. He smelled like piss and looked like hell, but he didn't stir from his spot. Then I looked up and saw a man in a white tank top smoking what looked to be crack off a metal spoon. He didn't pay me any mind so I didn't bother him.

Still, I couldn't shake this sense of foreboding. I felt that something bad was going to happen, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Maybe it was because the tall brick apartment buildings rose above me like cliffs. Or because none of these buildings had fire escapes which could provide a quick escape to the roof of a building if someone tried to jump me. Or perhaps it was because none of these other buildings looked inhabited but I still felt a presence of something around me.

My quick footsteps echoed off the cobblestones and I felt a prickling on my neck that danger was near. I glanced over my shoulder. I expected to see nothing but what I actually saw was a man; he was tall, average-build, and looked to be about his mid twenties. He was dressed in a tailored grey suit so I assumed that he was another businessman taking a short cut through the city and away from the rablerousing protestors. When I turned completely around to face him, he smiled hungrily and then quickly walked towards me.

Everything in my mind screamed at me to run, but I didn't understand why. He didn't look threatening. He certainly didn't fit my stereotype of the city thugs that might rob me or assault me and then rob me. But as he got closer to me, adrenaline flooded through my system. I could feel my heartbeat thudding in my head. All of my senses hyper focused on my breathing.

"Hey! Do I know you?" I called out to him.

The man smiled again but this smile was cold and calculating. This was a smile of a predator who had set his sights on some prey.

I bolted down the alley. I felt the familiar life-or-death terror that I had felt running through the trenches in the war. I could think of nothing else except escaping. The rest happened too quickly for my terror-filled mind to comprehend.

I heard what sounded like the rush of wind and then I felt a sensation of weightlessness before I was slammed into the concrete and asphalt. My head cracked against the ground and my vision quadrupled. My tongue felt thick in my mouth and the copper taste of blood stuck in the back of my throat.

Then the man's face was in front of mine but it was inhuman and monstrous. His eyes were pale blue and had a milky white film that obscured the cold fire within. They were the kind of eyes I'd see on corpses or cadavers that had sat awhile before making it to the morgue. His face was ethereal, pale, and the blue and red veins that sat just below the skin's surface bulged out. These features coupled with his jet black hair and harsh and angular facial structure made him look like a biblical demon.

It crouched down like an animal. I knew it was about to deliver the killing blow. What would it be? Gun? Knife? Blunt force trauma? When its claw-like hand gripped beneath my chin and turned my face to the side, another thought entered my mind. The concept was so ludicrous and impossible that I didn't believe it.

That is until the monster opened its mouth and sank its fangs into my neck.

* * *

My eyes opened and I saw that I was in an earthen room. The ceiling above us was concrete but the floor beneath me felt like cheap linoleum.  The place smelled musty and aside for a lit kerosene lamp, the place was completely dark. I tried to lift my head to get a better look at my surroundings but the sheer thought of moving sent painful jolts through my entire body.

I whimpered and forced myself to lie still. Although I was still alive, I could have a possible spinal fracture from the physical trauma. I hadn't bled out yet which meant that my carotid artery was still in tact, but the thing could've severed muscles and ligaments in my neck, or worse, compressed my cervical vertebrae.

I was breathing without pain which meant that my ribs and chest weren't damaged, but my pulse was much too fast. There was also an annoying tickle in the bottoms of my feet but I couldn't move my legs. That wasn't a good sign.

"He — Help!" I croaked.

A cruel laugh responded to my plea and I heard footsteps approach me. A metal chair squeaked as the monster sat down nearby.

"How are you feeling Nathan?" He asked. His voice was soft and low. I was surprised that I could even hear it over the terrible pounding in my head.

When I glanced to the left, I saw my attacker's grey suit pants. At his feet was my money, my identification — both my driver's license and military ID — and my loyalty card to Slocum Joe's.

"Is this your wife?" The monster asked and flashed my wallet-sized picture of Nora in front of my eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a fashionable twist, her brilliant blue eyes seemed to sparkle, and her lips were twisted into a coquettish smirk.

"Nora…" I rasped. My throat was on fire and I desperately wanted something to drink.

The monster chuckled, "She's quite the looker. You've done well for yourself, friend." He then threw the picture on the ground with the rest of the contents in my wallet. "I might just pay her a visit after I'm done with you."

"Please don't hurt her." I rasped. "I'll g-give you wh-whatever you want."

The creature sighed in annoyance. "You have nothing that I want that I can't take from you by force. If I have the inclination to go after your gorgeous wife, then I will. And I'll make you watch as I drain the life from her body."

His threat was meant to be horrifying but I was a practical man. Unless I got medical help and quickly, I'd be dead within a couple of hours from either blood loss or shock. His threats meant nothing to me, but I was still worried that he would make good on them and hurt Nora even after my death.

"Please don't hurt her." I begged. "If you want to kill me, then kill me. But don't hurt her."

He laughed but his voice held no true amusement. His voice was cruel and cold.

"You'll be dead in five minutes. But let's not rush it. These next few moments are my favorite part."

The blood in my veins grew cold, either from fear or from my circulation slowing down due to the blood loss. The monster moved closer to me and knelt by my head. I tried to turn my head to catch a glimpse of this psycho; I'd be no help to the cops as a corpse but I'd be dammed if I left this world without looking my enemy in the eye.

"Tisk tisk. Don't be too hasty, pet." His hand stroked my cheek like I was his lover, but his touch was ice cold. I had felt that same uncanny coldness before when I pulled corpses out of the freezer to transport them to a mortuary for embalming and their burial. I shivered despite myself.

"I haven't had someone quite like you in a long time. The anticipation of what's to come is part of the fun." His hand traveled from my cheek to my forehead and he brushed my hair off my sweated and clammy skin.

Although his hand felt unnaturally cold, my gut clenched in response when he touched me. I couldn't explain it nor could I control the wave of arousal that had suddenly taken me.

His hand trailed down across the bite in my neck and the pleasure spiked with an aching pain as his fingers touched the wound. The pain. The pleasure. Both were intoxicating and I half-whimpered and half-groaned as my body responded.

His other hand traced outside my clothed hip, crossed over my thigh, and went back up to the edge of my pelvis. My member twitched in anticipation of his touch as shame, fear, and panic washed over me.

"Stop!" I rasped. "Stop, please stop."

He sighed but withdrew his hand, "Oh come now, soon you'll be begging me to take you against this very floor. Your sense of misplaced modesty will die with you."

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes and I fixed my gaze on the ceiling. "

"Go. To. Hell." I snarled.

In the back of my mind, I could just imagine the cops' faces as they stumbled across this crime scene. They'd find my body ravaged and desecrated by the whims of a sexual deviant. The rape kit they'd perform would discover that I was forcibly penetrated. If I was lucky, they'd find this pervert's semen on me and they'd be able to identify a connection to other attacks.

The phrase 'if I was lucky' rang through my head and shame-filled tears leaked down my cheeks as I thought of the embittered irony behind that statement. Nobody would ever consider themselves lucky to be found dead with a rapist's DNA on them. Nobody except a coroner for the Medical Examiner's office who knew that the existence of DNA was the best way to track down a murderer.

But what would Nora think? What would she do when she found out her husband had been violated in such a horrific way?

I must've dozed off or passed out because the next sensation that I felt was the cool air tickling across my broad chest. My shirt was nowhere to be seen but I felt a sharp pain slice across my left pectoral muscle. When I glanced down, I saw the monster's dark hair hovering over my skin and I felt his tongue licking the blood from the fresh wound.

My member, now fully erect, pressed uncomfortably against my inseam. I wanted to beg him to undo my pants and completely strip me down. The very material the pants were made of felt unbearable against my ultra-sensitive skin. Dammit, No! This type of arousal wasn't natural. He must've slipped me a drug. Ecstasy perhaps or GHB.

"Please. Just let me go. I promise that I won't go to the police. I just want to go home." I whispered.

"It's too late for you to go home Nathan." The monster replied, sounding almost bored. I heard his lips smack as he cleaned the blood … my blood … off his index finger only to scratch me across my other pectoral just below my nipple and feast on the fresh blood that flowed there.

Once he had his fill, the monster rose to his feet and undid his silk dress shirt with practiced hands to reveal a firm and well-defined chest beneath. Although the man was slight and wiry, he had experienced some hard work in his life. His body was clearly that of a man who was accustomed to doing manual labor.

Next, he unbuttoned his dress pants and slid the fabric off his slim hips and down his legs. I audibly, wantonly moaned when his own erect member came into view. I wanted nothing more than to touch him and to bring him to climax. I had to. I needed to. It was my duty as his thrall.

_Thrall._

That word that was meaningless to me mere minutes ago rang in my head and I understood exactly what it meant. The knowledge was instinctual. I could feel the connection between us, it was weak but it was undeniably tangible like we were physically tethered by a rope.

"Ah, I can tell from your expression that you're already putting things together." He grinned.

When he moved towards me, my body yearned for his touch. I wanted to feel his ice cold hands feel every aching inch of my body. I wanted him to touch me, to caress me, to bite me. My mind, however, screamed at me to fight back. The animal instinct to survive roared against the oppressive arousal that overtook my body. It was a battle of wills and my mind was losing.

The monster settled himself on the ground next to me like we were lying in a bed. His bare leg draped across my thigh and he pulled me into his chest like I was a small doll. His pale hands were full of dirt and my dried blood and he gently kissed my shoulder.

Pleasure bloomed across my skin from that small kiss. I fixed my eyes on the earthen ceiling as the monster's kisses became more incessant and frequent. He rolled into my body and swung himself on top of me so he was straddling my hips and then descended to my neck once again.

He bit into my flesh and I moaned shamelessly as the pain from the wound and the pleasure from his touch mingled together into something incoherent.

This shouldn't be happening, I thought feverishly. This couldn't be happening!

But as his caresses moved across my chest and down to my hips, I felt my arousal jump in anticipation. The feeling of numbness and lethargy from the excessive blood loss and the raw pleasure from this monster's molestation made my stomach churn in disgust. I whimpered in my helplessness as I felt his fingers undo the button on my pants and push the fabric down to finally release me.

"NO!" I moaned weakly as his hand began stroking me from base to tip.

"No, please." I begged.

I couldn't move or thrash. My head swam from the pleasure and from the blood loss. Then as soon as it had started his ministrations stopped. My engorged member sat painfully hard against my thigh and I felt my heart thumping uselessly to pump enough blood through my body whilst trying to sustain my erection.

"You're an extraordinary creature." He purred and laved his tongue across my abdomen. "Do you consent to be mine?"

"N-NO." I screamed and the strength in my voice surprised me. "F-fuck no."

The monster hissed and his clawed hand dug into my inner thigh. The wet, copper smell of blood filled my nostrils and my vision tunneled from the pain.

"You will be mine." He growled. "Otherwise your wife can take your place instead."

His finger twisted into the muscle and I knew that if he slit my femoral artery, I'd bleed out in half a minute.

"Le-eave Nora a-a-lone." I choked out in broken sobs.

"Then agree to be mine." He growled.

My skin felt hot and my guts churned. My heartbeat felt like it was fluttering in my chest like a stunned insect.

Nora's body appeared in my mind. Her beautiful dark hair damp with her own blood. Her throat was ripped out and she lying naked on the kitchen table with her legs splayed having clearly been abused herself. Shaun, our beautiful son, was dead and lying inert in his crib. The image looked so real that I didn't dare consider that it was fabricated by this monster's devilish arts.

"NOOO." I wailed and weakly thrashed. "Alright. A-a-alright. I'm yours. Just don't hurt them."

The monster chuckled, "Good boy."

I saw the monster's deformed face through my tears. His milky blue eyes burned like cold fire as I felt the last warmth in my body drain away. He smiled at me; his white fangs were tinged pink and his lips, chin, and tongue were crimson from my blood. He was truly a demon from Hell.

He bit into his wrist with a sickening crunch and shoved it to my lips. I was too weak to fight him but I pursed my lips and tried anyway. The overwhelming smell of copper clouded my brain and I felt his blood burn as it dribbled over my lips and down my cheeks.

"Drink!" He snarled. His fingers, still slick with my blood, forced their way inside of me and found my prostate. I gasped at the burning pain from being penetrated so roughly which allowed him to shove his wrist into my mouth.

When the first drop of his blood slid down my throat, I climaxed. I moaned, writhed, and pushed against his hand to achieve a deeper penetration. I needed him. I needed this monster more than I needed life itself. In fact, I needed him more than I needed to live.

"That's it pet." He cooed.

With each greedy swallow, I felt the tether, the thrall, between us solidify into something incomprehensible. I was his now. Only he would provide for me. Only he would be with me. Only he would love me.

I barely registered him withdrawing his fingers from me, but seeing him pull his wrist from my lips caused me to weep.

"More…" I begged through my tears. "Please."

"Not yet my pet. Just listen."

We both fell silent. I could hear my heart struggling to pump in my chest. It sounded sluggish and then fell silent altogether.

The monster looked at me with wonder while I looked back at him in abject horror.

My heart had stopped but I was still conscious. This wasn't medically possible. But then the entire room seemed to collapse in on me.

Then I felt nothing but pure pain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: This chapter contains M/M rape, sexual coercion, and self-hatred as a result of past rape.

Chapter 2

The young woman struggled against the monster’s iron grip. Dirt caked her face and a trail of blood leaked from her scalp matting her hair to her skin.

She wore a sky blue dress jacket, a high-necked white floral blouse, and a matching straight-leg skirt that went to her calves. Her stockings were torn revealing the creamy skin beneath and her hair had fallen out of its perfectly coiffed bun and hung loose around her face.

“Do you feel the instinct within you to feed?” The monster asked. His pale blue eyes glowed with a cold fire. “Do you feel how your body changes when the bloodlust hits you?”

My entire body trembled. I felt unbearably cold and lethargic. I knew the symptoms of hypothermia well having experienced a minor case of it in Anchorage, but I had never experienced a sensation of cold this pervasive and unyielding

“Why am I so cold?” I croaked. I sat on my knees and clutched at my sides.

The monster’s hand tenderly brushed back the hair on my forehead. “The transition is not fully complete yet. Your body is dying. That’s why you feel so cold. You must feed, my pet.”

When I heard the word ‘feed,’ a switch had flipped in my mind and I could think of nothing except the woman in front of me. The compulsion was stronger than any drug on earth. I needed to feed.

Upon seeing my face, the woman in front of me screamed and thrashed against the monster’s hold. I smelled her fear in her sweat and I heard the frantic thumping of her heart. Her panic was intoxicating. My throat burned and my stomach clenched in anticipation of finally getting sustenance. My hands trembled like a nervous virgin’s at the thought of taking her into my arms.

“Savor this moment, Nathan.” The monster hissed into my ear. “Savor your first kill.”

He passed her to me like she was a newborn babe and I cradled her head and shoulders across my chest.

“Please…” She begged.

Tears trickled down her cheeks which made her eyes shimmer in the candlelight. Her nostrils flared with each panicked breath. I should’ve been horrified; I had never brutalized a woman in my life, but her fear awakened something sick and dark inside me. I couldn’t control it.

I pulled her against me and wrapped my arms around her back. Her breasts were warm against my chest and I could feel her heart beating through her skin. My left hand trailed through her hair and I gently but firmly tilted her head to the side. Her perfume wafted up as I nuzzled against her neck. The smell was cloying and sweet with floral notes of lavender amid the salty stench of sweat and fear.

She tensed when my lips brushed against her skin, and she tried futilely to push me off of her.

“No. No NO.” She whimpered.

“It will be okay.” I whispered in her ear.

I expected her to strike at me or scream, but she shuddered and faintly moaned. Her lavender perfume became overshadowed by a much more alluring scent: her arousal.

“Take her now!”

My body jerked reactively as the monster’s command echoed through the thrall. I couldn’t disobey him.

I didn’t hear her scream when my teeth sank into her neck. All I felt, all I knew, was bliss akin to nirvana as her blood, her vitality, flowed down my chin and throat and over my tongue. When her blood stopped flowing, I deepened the bite and drank more. On the second bite, her skin gave no resistance. My teeth tore through skin, muscle, and tendon as I pulled and sucked the life out of her.

“Nathan.” A far-away voice called out. “Let her go Nathan. You’ve done well.”

Firm hands pried us apart. I collapsed onto my back feeling overfull, sedate, and horrified with myself.

“How did that feel, pet?” The monster purred into my ear while stroking my hair affectionately.

I opened my eyes and saw that he hovered over me on his hands and knees. His long, dark hair was neatly tied back but stray wisps curled around his forehead giving his face a feminine quality.

“W-what did you do to me?” I croaked.

The monster smiled revealing his fangs, “I gave you life Nathan. I saved you from old age and disease. I made you into a God among men. This is just the small price for immortality.”

I looked over at the woman I had just attacked. Her skin was blue-grey in the dim light and her blond hair spilled over her face and over the bite wound.

“Oh God.” I moaned, now fully aware of myself and my body. My fingers went to my mouth and I felt sharp fangs in place of my normal canine teeth.

“No. No. No. NO.” I howled.

I scrambled to my feet. Although the room was dark, I could see everything without trouble. The place was small; it was about the size of my living room and kitchen if put together. The walls were made out of concrete and a metal door locked us both in. There were no windows. A few lit candles sat on a nearby nightstand; their wax had melted into the wood which told me that we had been here for a few hours.

“Where the fuck am I?”

“Nathan…” The monster rose his hands and I watched as his demonic features dissolved back into those of a human. “Everything is going to be fine my pet.”

I froze in place as he approached me. His eyes, his human eyes, were hazel-green and were framed with thick, dark eyelashes. His face was delicate and attractive. He had high cheekbones that spoke of a vaguely Eastern European ancestry. His thin lips, now no longer framed with terrifying fangs, curved slightly upwards in a knowing smirk.

I was a head taller and at least thirty pounds heavier than him, but he pulled me against his body with the strength of a man twice his size.

“Pet, you must listen to me now.” He murmured softly as though I was a sick child. “You are experiencing many powerful physiological changes as your body transitions. Do not be afraid. I’m here to guide you through it.”

I trembled in his arms, partly out of terror and partly out of an inexplicable physical need. Being held by this monster felt oddly satisfying.

“Water.” My throat burned when I spoke. “I — I need water. I’m so thirsty.”

The monster shook his head and tutted disapprovingly. “Water will do nothing for you now. Nathan, listen to your instincts. What are they telling you that you need?”

I looked down at my own hands. My fingernails had elongated into quarter-inch long points which looked sharp and sturdy enough to disembowel someone.

“Blood.” I whispered.

“Yes my pet.” He murmured. Cold lips kissed mine. “The girl was just an appetizer. You require a lot more blood to help facilitate your transition. It’s too late to hunt for more prey right now, but once the sun goes down I’ll take you out for your first hunt.”

I whimpered in need. “I can’t think of anything else except blood. I — I —“

The monster brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit down on his own skin. Immediately the copper scent hit my nose like the world’s most powerful aphrodisiac. My body responded in turn. There was no way that the creature couldn’t feel my arousal pressing against him.

“Drink from me, pet.” He cooed. “My blood will not provide you with sustenance but it will slake your thirst for now.”

I didn’t have the chance to refuse. Crimson liquid flowed down his wrist and forearm and I was lapped at every drop, moaning shamelessly. As I drank, his other hand slipped beneath my trousers and he stroked me. My hips pushed into his touch which earned me a warm chuckle and a throaty ‘yes, good boy.’

His blood was thinner than the woman’s and although it dulled the thirst that burned my throat, my body didn’t feel any stronger as a result.

“That’s enough pet.” He murmured and he pulled his wrist away from me.

I whimpered at the loss but groaned when his hand slid further down to gently cup my testicles. I was pulled out of my blood-induced hypnosis and realized what he was actually doing.

“Stop. No, stop!” I jerked away at the sensation and grabbed his hands to stop their further molestation. I pushed myself away from the creature and jostled against an upright file cabinet.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me again.” I panted.

The monster smirked. “Oh Nathan. The first rule you should learn about our kind is that sex and blood are often so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them. Denying yourself the pleasure of the flesh is about as effective as denying yourself the pleasure of blood. You may succeed for a while, but eventually, you will give in.”

He grabbed me by the neck. I thought he was going to choke me or perhaps break my neck, but instead he grabbed my cheeks with an unyielding grip and pulled me towards his lips.

His cold lips pushed against mine like a battering ram. He forced his tongue into my mouth and licked across my teeth and fangs tasting the blood that had lingered from my first meal. His own fangs punctured my lower lip and he sucked at the blood that bubbled to the surface.

I grabbed his forearms and shuddered as his tongue laved over my lips and licked up the blood that had leaked down my chin. Pleasure rolled over my shoulders and down my spine and despite my best intention not to, I let out a breathy moan.

“Sex can help subdue the bloodlust for a time when there is an exchange of blood in the process.” He whispered and licked my lips which were swollen and throbbing.

I shook my head. Despite my protest, his hands snuck underneath my shirt as his fingers teased across my abdomen before settling on my hips.

His voice took on a deadly tone. “Nathan, if you will not willingly give yourself to me, I will make you do so through the thrall.”

Every instinct and compulsion was screaming at me to obey, but I still shook my head. My chest heaved as I fought against the tempest that tore at my dead heart.

“Thrall it is then.” The monster replied.

As soon as he spoke, I felt tendrils of an intangible force reach out from his body and push through my chest. My dead heart contracted and I cried out at the sensation.

_The next lesson, dear Nathan, is the powerful effect that thralls have on the sire and his progeny. You can feel that I have tapped into that power, can you not?_

The monster spoke yet his lips didn’t move. He was communicating telepathically.  
  
I nodded.

The monster stepped closer to me. With the same suddenness as flicking on a light switch, his eyes reverted back a whitish-blue demonic hue and his veins bulged around his eyes and face. He took several deep breaths as though he was preparing to show some physical feat of strength.

_Walk to me._

I did. Or my muscles did on their own accord.

_Unbutton your shirt._

My fingers flew to the buttons of my now filthy and stained cotton dress shirt and undid each one. As I undressed, the monster unbuttoned his own shirt and tossed it on a metal desk. He approached me with uncanny smoothness and brushed the side of my face with his knuckles.

“Please don’t make me do this.” I whimpered. Shame and guilt tore through me as I leaned in to his touch.

He cupped my face with the same gentle touch that I would display when Nora and I were alone at home. I tried to pretend that his hands were hers; if I could pretend that the memory of her touch was what brought me pleasure then I wouldn’t feel so misused by my captor.

“You’re extraordinary Nathan.” He murmured in a heady voice. “I was drawn to you when I first set eyes on you.”

I stood mute and stared at a chunk of broken drywall just over his left shoulder. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction in knowing he had control over me.

His palms ran across my chest and down my sides. I bit my lip to stop myself from making any sort of noise that would betray how his touch made me feel, but I knew he sensed my reaction nonetheless. His hands slipped beneath my pants once again.

_Take your pants off._

“Please…” I begged once more. I unbuttoned my fly and slipped the fabric off my hips.

There was no mercy in the monster’s eyes, only a dark lust coupled with a cold fire of something inhuman, and he slowly descended to his knees.

I looked away. I couldn’t watch this debauched act, least of all being performed on me by a hellish creature.

Try as I might to fight my physiology, my body was ready and more than willing to accept his touch.

I tried to fix Nora firmly in my mind. I imagined how her voice would hitch lustfully as she planted kisses down my body before taking me into her mouth. I thought of her dark brown eyes and how her olive complexion glowed amber and gold in the moonlight. The sound of her pants and amorous murmurs could drive me to the edge of an orgasm within minutes. And I felt myself responding as though she was pleasuring me instead.

The monster hummed in approval when I audibly moaned.

“Louder, I want to hear you.” He demanded.

His cool hands were incessant and unyielding as he stroked my shaft and penetrated me with his fingers. His touch was firm and on the edge of being abusive but I just stood there and accepted his ministrations.

_Bend over the desk._

I stepped out of my pants which had pooled on the floor and walked several steps to the left. My spine bent on its own accord and my chest kissed the frigid metal. The monster rose from his knees with the same grace and decorum of a holy man rising from prayer and positioned himself behind me.

“Have you ever been taken by a man before.” He asked. His hand rubbed across my broad back and his finger traced over an old bullet wound scar that was in my left shoulder.

My breath fogged up the table and created a rainbow of patterns across the stainless steel. In that moment, I felt the cold chill of Alaskan air and smelled the oil and gunpowder from the weapons and ammunition that was left in the medical tent.

Answer me.

My answer spilled out of my mouth. The single word tasted like poison on my tongue.

“Yes.”

My reaction seemed to surprise him because he pulled me up off the table and held me from behind. Maybe it was from the tone of my voice or from the anguish that accompanied my answer, but the monster’s embrace was gentle and protective.

“Nathan I will be so much better than that brute.” He murmured against my neck. “You needn’t fear me.”

I chuckled dryly. The pain, anger, self-hatred, and disappointment all swirled around me and threatened to tear me up.

“Just get it over with.” I snapped.

I felt the monster’s fingers rubbing some type of lubricant across my anus. I choked out a cry when his thumb sank into me. I felt the burn and the stretch and tensed reactively. I felt ashamed but I realized that I couldn’t blush. The telltale sensation of heat that often followed upon feeling shame was gone. Being able to blush was such a small thing, but at that moment I felt robbed.

“Relax.” The monster murmured as he inserted another finger.

I whimpered and bit my lower lip to keep from crying out. I wouldn’t give this fucker the satisfaction of knowing he was causing me pain.

“J-Just fuck me and be done with it.” I snarled.

The monster chuckled darkly, “Patience my pet.”

I was forced back down on the desk. One hand kept me there while his other resumed its ministrations around my anus. I felt a wave of inexplicable calmness wash over me like a drug. I let out the breath that I had been holding and sank unconsciously back onto the monster’s intruding digits.

“See Nathan?” He murmured and kissed my back. “I can also influence your emotions through the thrall. Don’t you feel better now?”

I bit my lip to keep myself from answering but my aching cock was all the evidence he needed. Truthfully, I felt wonderful now. Pleasure and delicious tension built from his touch and, like a hedonist, I craved more.

“I can also feel your need through the thrall.” He replied. “I know you are ready for me now.”

I whimpered shamefully when he pressed himself into me. My body still wouldn’t yield to him. Then his hand reached beneath me and stroke my aching member. I was caught off guard by the intense pleasure that I relaxed enough to allow him breach me. We both hissed at the sensation. I clawed at the table and my sharp nails left half inch deep gouges in the metal.

“Do you want more?” The monster hissed.

I nodded despite myself. My mind screamed at me to fight back but my body vibrated from the sexual tension that needed to be released.

The monster sank farther into me and then pulled out before repeating the process. With each stroke, my pain and guilt leaked away and I began yearning for his touch. Once he found his rhythm, the bunker was punctuated with sounds of skin slapping against skin and the occasional desperate moan.

His hand wrapped across my chest and he pulled me off the metal table. I arched against him and was rewarded when his cock found my prostate. All of the air escaped from my lungs and I felt myself tumbling forward into the dark, swirling vortex of pleasure.

“Come for me pet.” He hissed.

I did. I released myself all over the table and moaned like a wonton whore. Tears pricked in my eyes from the flood of endorphins that flushed through my body thanks to my orgasm, but they slid down my face once I felt the cold shame intrude back into my mind.  I didn’t have time to beat myself up too much. The monster’s own trusting became sloppy and jagged. He was close so I braced myself for the inevitable. What I didn’t anticipate was the sharp pain in my shoulder as the monster bit into my flesh.

We both cried out and I felt his essence spill into me. Rivulets of my thin blood slipped down my skin which the monster lapped at like a kitten at a saucer of milk. I panted and shivered. My forearms trembled and if the monster hadn’t been holding me up, I would’ve collapsed onto the ground.

Cold lips pecked at my jugular and I heard him whisper hoarsely, “Thank you Nathan.”

I shivered and stumbled away on shaky legs once he let me go. I swayed on my feet and then collapsed to my knees feeling light headed, exhausted, and disgusting.

The monster gathered me up and carried me to a bed that was tucked away in the corner. My eyes were heavy and I fought against the darkness that threatened to claim me. After one blink, I saw the monster drag the girl’s body around the corner and through the metal doorway before locking us in once again. In the next moment, I felt a cold washcloth cleaning my privates and the blood that had leaked from the bite. The last thing I remember was hearing someone clicking on a radio.

A man’s tense voice caught my attention before I let exhaustion claim me.

_…blinding flashes…yes…we do have confirmed reports….reports of nuclear detonation in New York and Pennsylvania…God help us all…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains consensual M/M sex and a bit of mindfuckery.

Chapter 3

April 15th 2288

I awoke with a start. My chest rattled and the burning thirst that sat dormant while I slept awakened with righteous fury. I felt my veins contracting as they lazily pumped blood to my extremities. Typically, it took my body a mere moments to resume its normal physiological responses but it had been awhile since I had last fed. I opened my eyes and looked upon the jail cell that had been my home for the past decade.

A desk was tucked into the corner at the foot of my bed. Although small, it was outfitted with a microscope, various test tubes and beakers, and a bunsen burner. Ever since I broke free of … his … control, I made it my mission to learn about my vampire physiology down to a microscopic level.

The jail cell once had a toilet but I had no use for it. In its place, I set up a makeshift study. I scavenged a plush recliner and a bookshelf from the lobby and filled it to the brim with as many medical journals, textbooks, and classic works of literature as I could find. Several books were earmarked and many others held my notes that were neatly written into the margins in pencil. I decided long ago that if I was saddled with immortality, at least I’d spend that time trying to understand the nature of my cursed condition.

“Nate. You up?” A gnarled voice barked from the shadows.

The figure that stood outside my cell lit a cigarette with a gold plated lighter. His sunken eyes watched me warily with an expression of half unabashed lust and half curiosity. I saw the muscles in his cheeks clench and move as he ground his back molars.

“What time is it?” I asked. My voice was hoarse from disuse and my throat burned with thirst.

“Five minutes after sundown. So … roughly six-thirty.” He growled. “Once you’ve cleaned up and fed, Jack wants to see you down in the lab.”

Jack Cabot was the first friend I made in this hellish post-nuclear world after 190 years of wandering the wasteland with a sadistic creature. My freedom from my sire came at a steep price, and I never intended to get this close with another human, but once I did, I forgot how much I yearned for human interaction. Jack and I immediately bonded over our shared interested in science and medicine, and he agreed to help me research a potential cure for my cursed condition.

For being nearly double my age, Jack had his hangups and eccentricities, of course, his intelligence, generosity, and open mindedness in all manner of things won me over.

My sire often thought that my rejection of him was due to some misguided anti-homosexual sentiment, but what I was really rejecting was his cruelty and his propensity for sadism. I’m not ashamed to admit that I felt strong amorous feelings towards Jack within the first couple months of meeting him.

Likewise Jack’s assistant, Edward Deegan, had the same appeal. He balanced Jack out. Science held no interest to him, but his bravery and loyalty towards the entire Cabot family is what won me over. He once told me that he owed Jack his life, and after that, Jack would have to order him to leave before he’d ever abandon the Cabot family.

My arrangement with the Cabots started ten years ago after Edward had found my half-blood starved and tortured carcass crawling across their doorstep over by Bunker Hill. Jack and Edward quickly learned what I was, but instead of cutting my head off and burying me in an unmarked, unconsecrated grave, they took me in and nursed me back to health. Once I was well enough to travel, they transferred me over to Parsons State Insane Asylum so I wouldn’t be a threat to others and so Jack and I could study the effects of vampirism in a secure location.

“Jack wants another sample by the way. He insists you give it before you feed.” Edward held out a stainless steel tray with an empty syringe and glass vial on it

“You might have to come in here and get the sample yourself. I’m having a hard time getting my blood flowing.” I rasped.

“How long was it since you last fed?”

“Twenty-seven days ago.”

“Why Nate? Jesus Christ. Are you trying to kill yourself?”

Edward unlocked the cell and set the aluminum tray on the mattress next to me. “There is extra blood in that cooler for a reason, ya know in case Jack forgets to feed you or if I’m out in the wasteland on an assignment.”

“I’m not a damn pet.” I snapped.

“No, but what if someone had found their way down here on accident? What if you escaped in a hunger induced haze and you killed someone?” His voice was low and serious. "It's happened before."

"I was reckless before." 

"You're still reckless." He grumbled.

“Jack and I are doing an experiment.” I huffed petulantly.

The ghoul shook his head in exasperation. “Well I’m calling off the experiment now. You need to feed.”

He snatched the syringe off the tray and turned on the table lamp that sat on my nightstand. He pulled out rubber surgical tubing from the drawer and tied a tourniquet on my arm. I stifled an aroused groan and looked away as the needle slid into my vein.

Dark red blood bubbled into the plastic test tube and within seconds it was full. Edward withdrew the needle and handed me two blood bags.

“Drink.” he growled.

I bit through the thick medical-grade plastic like I was biting through a juice box. The blood was cold and thick but I was so hungry that polished the first one off and tore into the second one before I realized that Edward was watching my every move.

“Must you watch me?” I hissed. My voice had taken on a fiendish quality as I let the change overtake me.

“Yes.” He replied as he removed the tourniquet. “And as long as you and Jack flip common sense the middle finger, I might need to watch you feed every night just so you don’t do something this stupid again.”

The blood was having its intended effect on me and I squeezed my eyes against the influx of sensations.

“Edward, turn around please. The blood… it’s —”

Sensing my growing discomfort and shame he replied, “Fine. Just be sure to finish the whole thing.”

I tried to suppress my groans as I drank from the blood bag. Ever the tactful one, Edward busied himself by browsing through my bookshelf. He pulled a copy of The Massachusetts Medical Journal from the shelf and began to read as I fed.

Even after two centuries of acclimating to my condition, I still detested how my body responded when I fed. It started with my sense of smell. As soon as I smelled blood, I’d lose myself in the sensation. Once that happened, my change was nearly instantaneous. My fangs descended, my fingernails grew into claws, and my brown eyes turned milky blue and glowed in the low light while the veins throughout my body bulged slightly as they worked overtime to redistribute the blood.

If the physical changes weren’t bad enough, the sexual effects that blood has on my body was enough to make me feel like a perverted sex fiend in addition to a monster.

While feeding, my body responds to the influx of new blood in typical ways. My skin becomes flushed and warmer, I become less lethargic and my senses become more acute, and I develop a raging erection that remains until I either manually take care of it or until my body uses enough blood while performing its typical physiological functions that the erection finally subsides.

I turned away from the ghoul to hide my erection and sucked greedily at the bag until the plastic shriveled up in my hands. My mind swam from the sudden blood rush and I braced myself against the cold concrete wall and audibly groaned.

“I don’t understand why you torture yourself like this Nate.” Edward growled. “Jack and I know what you are. There’s no reason to stand on ceremony around us.”

“I’m not standing on ceremony.” I panted. “I’m standing on modesty.”

“So ya get off from drinking blood. There are worse fetishes than that.”

I glared at the ghoul’s back, “That’s not the point. I — I just. I feel less like _him_ when I exercise restraint. The longer I go without blood, the less monstrous I feel.”

He turned to me and I flinched away holding the second blood bag that was now half empty.

“Dammit Edward, please don’t look at me.”

He sighed and purposely walked into my line of sight. I knew how I looked to him. Blood smeared my lips and chin, my fangs jutted out past my lips, and my talon-like claws clutched the second blood bag like a panther holding the neck of a felled gazelle.

“You think I give a fuck what you look like all vamped out?” He snapped impatiently. “I’m a ghoul. I’m one of the ugliest fuckers you’ve ever seen. Hell, I’m the ugliest fucker I’ve ever seen! Now, I can understand your Pre-War modesty and your physical hangups after what that monster did to you, but I’ve been with you for ten years. In all this time, have I ever disparaged you for something you can’t control?”

“No.”

Edward affectionately patted my cheek with his rough, mottled hand. “Exactly, kid. Now finish your breakfast. Jack is waiting for us in the lab.”

“And uh…I got some Pre War pinup magazines if you wanna take care of that.” He gestured to my erection.

“Thank you but no.” I replied icily. “I’ll be right down.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged.

* * *

“Your red blood cell count has dropped by forty-six percent since the last sample, and your white blood cell count is still at least five times greater than our control sample. As we previously guessed, your platelet count also dropped again which we can attribute a near one to one relationship to the amount of days you’ve fasted.”

Jack placed his glasses back over his eyes and switched the microscope off. “Still, I’m afraid I haven’t found anything new that could lead us closer to finding a cure.”

I tried to not let the disappointment show on my face. “Maybe we’re thinking about this in the wrong context. We’ve assumed that vampirism acts like a virus and corrupts healthy blood cells but what if it’s more parasitic and feeds off the host?”

“Your liver enzymes were normal when we last ran tests which rules out that hypothesis.” Jack replied. “And we’d have to get you back to that fasted state which would require another month of time.”

“Oh no, not more time! Time is such a finite commodity here.” I drawled sarcastically.

“Ha ha.” Jack deadpanned.

“Jack…” Edward cut in.

Jack sighed, “I’m getting there Edward.”

I frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Jack.” Edward’s voice was sharp. “You gotta tell him. Now.”

The other man sighed and adjusted his glasses. His brown eyes seemed luminous behind the black rims and they looked out at me now with unfathomable regret.

“Nate, I recieved a hit on my investigation into the remaining closed vaults in the city. This one got overlooked because it had only recently opened and was no longer listed in the Vault Tec database as a secure vault.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Nate. I’ve recieved word that Vault 111 opened six months ago. Only one survivor emerged.”

My mind spun at the news, “What?”

Jack pulled out a folded up photograph from his lab coat and passed it to me.

“The Railroad has been keeping tabs on that vault far longer than I have. One of their agents took this picture on the morning she emerged.”

She.

My fingers trembled as I unfolded the photograph. The black and white picture was grainy but the woman in the center had the same physical build and hair color as Nora.

“I mean…” My knee jiggled restlessly and I glanced from Jack to Edward and back, “this could be anyone.”

Jack sighed and took my hands into his. He didn’t jerk away from my frigid skin and I secretly relished in the feverish warmth that his gave off.

“The agent I purchased the picture from also claims that he saw her enter Diamond City about four months ago. Ever since then, she’s taken up with an older model synth who calls himself Nick Valentine.”

My breath hitched in my chest, “Nick Valentine?”

“Do you know him?” Edward asked sharply.

“I — I knew a human by that name before the bombs fell. He … uh … he was a Boston cop. I attended to his fiancé after she was the target of a mob hit.”

“Did this Nick Valentine have any connections to the CIT?” Jack asked.

“The CIT?” I replied, still mentally chewing on the news. “I — uh — no. He was a cop. He didn’t strike me as the science type but —“

“— Oh shit.” I whispered.

“What?” Jack asked.

“Maybe it is him … or at least some part of him.” I replied.

“I don’t understand.”

I stood up and paced across the pristine white tile. “There were always rumors, you know? There was gossip among the doctors and other coroners that the CIT was dabbling in alternate life saving measures. It sounded like a bunch of science fiction back then, and I chalked most of it up to idle gossip and latent fear mongering but a colleague of mine was insistent that I transfer to the CIT and work as part of their medical team.”

“And why didn’t you?” Jack asked.

“Well I had Nora and the baby. I was already working seventy hours a week on account of the Eddie Winters case. I never had the chance to run the offer by Nora. We didn’t make decisions without consulting the other. But I do remember that Nick Valentine was on his way to the CIT the night before the bombs fell. Maybe he somehow survived?”

“It’s doubtful that his physical body survived.” Jack said. “My informant was quite clear that this Nick Valentine is one of the Institute’s synths.”

“I can go to Diamond City and see if I can establish a connection there.” Edward suggested.

“What about the ghoul bigotry, Edward. Are you even sure they’ll let you in?”

Edward smirked, “A few insults has never hurt anyone. Besides, I know how to keep a low profile. Vadim and Yefim owe me a big favor. They’ll let me hole up in their bar for a while.”

I nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you’d investigate this for me. And keep an eye out for Nora too.”

Jack’s mustache twitched and I knew there was something more.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Jack picked at his fingernails and an uncomfortable silence fell between us. Even Edward looked physically uncomfortable.

“Jack, what else is there?” I asked as I sat back down. I grabbed an empty ceramic coffee cup from the table and rolled it in my hands.

Edward cleared his throat, “There have been other reports that your sire has been spotted near the old Sunshine Tidings Co-Op.”

No.

God, No.

The fear, anger, disgust, and guilt that I spent the past ten years stuffing into the dark recesses of my head flooded back to me all at once. I barely felt the pain as my hands crushed around the coffee cup and the pieces sliced through my skin.

“Nathan. Nathan! Shhhh. Calm down.” Jack’s warm touch stroked my face and I opened my eyes. I saw my vampiric face in his glasses and I turned away in disgust.

“I’m sorry.” I growled. “I just — I can’t —“

“Hey, it’s okay.” He pulled me back around to face him despite my horrible visage. “Forewarned means forearmed, right?”

“Does he know I’m here?”

“I doubt it.” Edward replied. “And even if he did know, he can’t enter this place without Jack or his sister’s permission. This place, as well as the Cabot house, are still owned by Lorenzo. As long as he is alive, the protection will stay.”

“What about your sister?” I asked Jack. “She took off again right after your mom passed away. If he finds her —“

“— Edward will get to her first.” Jack replied firmly. “Besides that creature doesn’t know what my sister looks like. He’s only met my father and I and that was over three and a half centuries ago.”

I still didn’t relax. The memories and the horror of living with that creature for as long as I did threatened to engulf me.

“As soon as he feels my presence in the Commonwealth, he is going to try and call me through the thrall.” I whispered.

Edward’s jaw clenched at the thought, “We’ll deal with it like we did three years ago.” He growled. “He’s probably just checking up on you again.”

“That’s not what worries me the most.” I replied.

“Then what?” Jack asked.

I glanced at Edward and Jack. “If he finds out that we’ve … that we’re …”

Jack sighed, “Nate…”

“He’ll kill you both.” I whispered. “He’ll kill you both right in front of me, or he’ll make me rape you while he watches, and then he’ll kill you.”

“It wont come to that.” Jack murmured and kissed my knuckles. “We’ve gotten you through his thrall the last two times, we’ll do it again.”

“You’ve never felt the thrall.” I spat bitterly. “He will make me do whatever he wants. I spent 190 God damned years as his slave doing his bidding, no matter how fucked up it was. I’m … his.”

“No.” Edward snapped. He placed a large hand on my shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “Nobody owns you Nate. We will make sure you aren’t taken by him. He can’t touch you here.”

“He can though.” I murmured. I felt defeated.

Jack pulled my injured hand towards him and began to remove the ceramic shards with tweezers before my body healed over them.

“Jack, I have to get on the road no later than sunrise.” Edward announced. “Once I find Emogene, I need to gather all of the intel I can about the Vault Dweller. Can you handle this alone?”

Jack looked me in the eyes. My hand tingled as the skin mended itself now that the ceramic fragments were out.

“I can Edward.” He replied. “Nate, do you give me your consent to help you through the thrall?”

I nodded. “I consent.”

As soon as I said those words, a warm glow flushed through me.

Even after two hundred years of existence, I still didn’t understand how the thrall worked. Everything else about my condition could be somewhat explained on a scientific basis, but the thrall — the intangible connection between that monster and myself — it felt more like magic than science.

“You’ll need to bite him Jack.” Edward interjected.

“I beg your pardon?”

I didn’t look him in the eye as I explained this next part. Despite the desperate situation we were in, the thought of Jack’s mouth on my neck thrilled me.  
  
“Jack, you must establish your dominance over me. Doing that will counteract the effects of the thrall. I cannot be dominated by two forces — it doesn’t work like that — and since that creature won’t be able to establish the blood connection needed, you must do what you can to recreate it.”

“But you can’t consume our blood.” Jack pointed out.

“No.” I agreed. “But you can consume small amounts of mine. That act alone should break the connection for another few years or so, assuming he leaves like the did the last two times. Without his blood in my system, establishing the thrall is quite exhausting, and I’m sure he’s expending most of his energy hunting and traveling.”

“What will happen if I consume some of your blood?” Jack asked. “Last time, Edward was the one who —“

I shook my head, “The risks are small, but I advise that you spit most of my blood out as consuming too much blood of any kind can make you ill. My blood will probably have an aphrodisiac effect. It may give you heightened senses for a short period of time, but all in all, it’s safe enough.”

Edward rumbled, “If it doesn’t hold, I should be back in a couple of weeks with news. We just need to be extra vigilant about stopping you from hurting yourself. Last time he made you do a number on yourself.”

I flexed my left hand at the memory. I could still feel where the acid bubbled on my skin as I was forced to treat my hand like a macabre dissection experiment.

“Are you sure about this?” Jack asked me.

I nodded. “Are you?”

Jack removed his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief that he kept in his pocket before putting them back on.

“Would you prefer your place or mine?”

* * *

Two nights later, I felt the first hints of my sire’s influence while I was reading.

_Nathan_

I set my book down and rose to my feet as though I was preparing to fight a flesh and blood person. Icy fear gripped my dead heart and I grabbed onto the back of my office chair. My nails had already grown into claws and I felt the creature force the change from within me.

_Nathan, my pet._

I had gone over three years without feeling his thrall but my body accepted him back as though I was being reunited with a lost part of myself. I moaned shamelessly as my fingers automatically unbuttoned my shirt.

“Go away.” I said in a breathy, weak voice.

My stomach twisted and I felt heat pulse in my loins as the monster aroused me. My cock hardened immediately and I stripped out of my pants before I even knew what I was doing.

_Can you feel how hard you are for me, my pet?_

I panted and groaned. My body automatically obeyed to his unspoken commands and I collapsed to my knees and presented my bare ass to the air. I bit my lip so hard that I tasted my own blood as I felt his touch ghost across my back.

_So beautiful._

“JACK!” I screamed.

I panted and writhed but my body wouldn’t let me rise out of my position. Instead, my own clawed hand slashed across my bare chest and blood poured from the wound and onto the floor.

_That is what you get for running from me Nathan._

His voice deepened and I knew that more cruelty was close at hand.

“Jack, please!” I sobbed.

_You cannot run from me. You’ll always be MINE._

I screamed out as white hot pain erupted through my veins. I lost all sense of reality. All I knew was pain and humiliation.

“Nate! NATE!” Jack’s voice echoed from a place far away.

I was grinding my teeth so hard that I heard my back molars shatter under the pressure.

“Nate, tell me what you need!” Jack’s voice was closer now. His warm hand cupped my cheek but I shook him off me.

“Gain dominance Jack. You gotta do it. Like I told you, okay?” I panted.

“Okay…”

He didn’t sound too enthused but I heard him disrobe. I could smell his human essence and arousal and I tried to hold onto that like a tether.

_Say you’re mine._

I shook my head and whimpered. My brain wanted to explode inside my head from the pain of refusing the thrall.

_Say it!_

Jack groaned as he entered me. I sighed in relief as I felt the slight burn amid the pleasure that chased after it. He must’ve prepared himself beforehand because he moved in and out of my body with ease. Although he was stocky and short, his strength rivaled Edward’s and I felt his forearms ripple as he pulled me into him.

“Bite me Jack.” I choked out.

As I commanded, he pulled me up against his chest and laved at my jugular. His blunt human teeth bit at the skin which sent jolts of pleasure to combat the unrivaled pain of the monster’s rage.

_SAY IT NATHAN!_

“You’re mine Nate.” Jack murmured in my ear. His baritone voice was confident but soft.

“Yes.” I murmured weakly. “I’m yours Jack.”

When he bit down, I felt my pleasure and the monster’s rage intermingle into one raw ball of energy and sensation as I climaxed. I felt Jack’s own release and then I heard nothing else aside for my occasional groans and Jack’s panting.

“Jesus Nate. You’ve nearly disemboweled yourself.”

“It will heal.” I wheezed. “Grab me some blood from that cooler please.”

He eased me to the concrete floor, withdrew from me, and helped me turn onto my back. I brought my hand to my neck. The bite had already healed but my chest looked like I had been mauled by a Yao Guai.

Jack propped me into a sitting position and braced my back against the bed. He handed me a blood bag which I tore into while he poured some purified water into a bowl and began cleaning the blood from my chest and neck.

Jack’s lips were stained red from my blood and his normally perfectly gelled and combed hair was a mess, but he looked at me in wonder.

“Did it work?” He asked cautiously.

I closed my eyes and listened for the creature’s thoughts or rage, but I heard and felt nothing.

“He’s gone again. For now at least.”

He sighed in relief and began to clean my neck and chest with a torn cloth.

“I’m sorry it was so quick.” He replied. “But that … it was never that intense before.”

I chuckled and put the empty blood bag on the nightstand. “This wasn’t about sex, remember? It was about power. You stopped that creature from getting his hooks in me again. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

Jack nodded and continued his gentle ministrations. Thanks to the blood, the marks on my chest were already healing, “There’s gotta be a more permanent solution though.”

“There is.” I agreed. “But that would mean that I’d have to kill him.”

“Would you be able to?” Jack asked. “Hypothetically speaking, that is.”

“No.” I whispered.

He nodded. “I understand that.”

Jack rose to his feet and placed the red rag into the bowl and set it on the nightstand. He dressed quickly and I observed how his pale body moved in the darkness. For being a man of learning, he was remarkably fit.

“It’s getting late.” He announced.

“Or early.” I quipped.  
  
Jack turned back to me and brushed back my shaggy hair from my forehead. “You’re remarkable Nate.”

A delighted shiver ran down my spine, and my hand brushed against his cheek and then pulled his face down towards me. I kissed him, savoring the taste of myself on his lips, and then let him pull away.

Jack helped me get into bed and covered my body with the blanket. Just as sleep was about to take me, I felt the tug in my chest once again.

_Nice try Nathan._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Nora’s POV**

The sun dipped below the stadium walls and the entire sky was painted pink and scarlet as twilight approached. Nick and I were strolling along the path that led out towards Shang’s water purifier. We had a bone to pick with the kid as his reservoir was used (for the third time this month) as a convenient place to dispose of a body. I figured that the kid’s bluster and tough-guy act was just that, an act, and maybe with the right incentive, he’d be able to point us to the perp that was creating these dead bodies.

The quaintly lit patio outside the Dugout Inn came into view as we crossed a few sodden plywood boards that covered a patch of foul smelling water. A couple of locals sat at a table and were playing cards and drinking beer. The neon sign next to the door sporadically flickered.

“Hold on Nick. I wanna check in on Vadim before we talk to Shang. I’m sure he’s still shaken up after what happened at the brewery.”

Nick grimaced but extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray by the door. “After you, doll.”

“C’mon.” I urged. “It’ll be a quick in and out. I promise.”

“Is that sometin’ you usually promise men?” He quipped.

“Shut up.” I smirked.

Despite the obvious physical changes and sporadic gaps in his memory, this Nick Valentine was more than just an echo of the man who lived before the bombs. His mannerisms, voice, sly jokes, and even his walk were exactly as I had remembered.

The Nick I knew was a force to be reckoned with. He could get a confession out of anyone, and on the rare occasion that I’d visit the Boston Police Department to consult with a client or to receive information about an upcoming trial, Nick was one of the few men who wasn’t a complete pig. So when I encountered him imprisoned in the Vault beneath Park Street Station, I thought I had come across a ghost.

Nick pulled the heavy metal door open and I stepped into the warm and smoky hallway that led to the Dugout Inn. When he closed the door behind us, a momentary feeling of claustrophobia swept over me. I continued forward through the dim haze of tobacco and Jet fumes until I saw Vadim working behind the bar.

“Nora!” Yefim cried. “What brings you to our lovely bar today?”

I allowed the man to kiss me jovially on the cheek. His thinning dishwater blond hair crested into a pronounced widow’s peak which gave him a haughty look for a man of his middle age, but his piercing blue eyes held a boyish gleam that many young ladies could still find attractive.

“I’m here to check on your brother.” I remarked.

Yefim narrowed his eyes and smiled conspiratorially, “Yes. Yes. Vadim is still under house arrest. Aren’t you brother?!”

Vadim grumbled something unintelligible but sounded uncannily similar to a string of curse words and then he perked up. “Nora! Nick! Sit down. Have drink on me. I still owe you for saving my life.”

Nick and I approached the bar. I sat on the battered bar stool while Nick stood at my side.   
  
“And how much is your life worth tonight?” I asked with a smile.

“For you, beautiful Nora, I will give you anything you desire.” Vadim took my hand and kissed it.

I smiled at his overdramatic and vivacious personality. “I’ll just have a beer.”

Vadim clutched his chest dramatically. “Oh Nora. You wound Vadim. Is my life really worth just one beer?”

“Not at all!” I countered. “I meant it as the highest honor. Beer has changed nations, you know.”

“But Vadim’s moonshine has changed hearts.”

“Stopped hearts, maybe.” Nick mumbled.

“Yes. Yes. That happened one time.” Vadim huffed. “Fine. A raincheck then, yes?”

Vadim placed a beer bottle on the bar and leaned in closer to me. “A ghoul has been asking about you.”

“How did a ghoul make it past the Diamond City guards?” Nick asked.

“He says they let him come in.” Vadim replied. “Maybe he paid them off. But he’s been here for three days asking about you. He says he will not leave until you’ve talked with him.”

“Where is he?”

Vadim glanced over my shoulder and made a small but deft jerk with his head. I turned around and spied a ghoul dressed in full combat armor leaning up against the wall near the doorway smoking a cigarette.

“D’you know him?” I asked Nick.

“No. Not personally.” He replied. “There’s been rumors of a ghoul mercenary who hangs around Bunker Hill, but I’m not sure what business he’d want with you.”

The ghoul knew we were talking about him and instead of waiting for us to make a move, he pushed himself off the wall and approached the open seat on my left.

“Hey.” He rumbled. “Are you Nora?”

The ghoul was massive. He was at least six feet tall and his broad shoulders and solid frame told me that he had known a physical life before radiation began to ravage his body. But considering how large he was, I couldn’t imagine what this ghoul would’ve looked like before the bombs. As my late husband would say, this ghoul was built like a brick shithouse.

“Who are you?” I cocked my eyebrow at him.

“The name is Deegan.” He grumbled and extended his hand towards me. “Edward Deegan.”

I took it and shook his hand. “I’m Nora.”

“Nick Valentine.” My partner replied. I noticed that the men didn’t shake hands. Instead, they eyed each other up like cowboys at high noon.

“D’you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?” He rumbled. “My employer has been keeping an eye out for people who might be looking for a little extra work on the side. I just wanna see if you’re up for the task before I tell you the details.”

“You go first.” I replied. “You tell me the details of your job and I’ll tell you if I think I’m qualified for it.”

“We’re not mercenaries.” Nick interjected. “So if your job requires that we kill innocent people, you can count us out.”

I nodded in agreement but the ghoul’s bare eyebrow cocked up in interest. “I’m not lookin’ for a merc.” He rumbled. “I’m looking for a missing person, actually.”

“Who?”

“Her name is Emogene Cabot.” He replied. “And when I say that she’s missing, it’s more like she refuses to come home. Her brother is worried sick about her.”

“Do you have any idea as to where she might be?” Nick asked.

“I know exactly where she might be.” The ghoul remarked. “The only issue is that she’s gonna turn tail as soon as she see’s my ugly mug sniffing around her new friends. I just need you to convince her to come back home.”

I glanced at Nick and he shrugged. “It sounds easy enough.” I replied.

“See that’s where you’re wrong.” He grumbled. “And this is where my questions come in.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Do you believe in the supernatural?” He asked.

I smirked. In fact, I was going to write him off as a nut job but something nagged at my mind. “What d’you mean the supernatural?”

“As in aliens and vampires and the like.” He remarked seriously.

Nick snorted. “You must’ve watched a lot of B-horror movies before the bombs fell, pal.”

“Maybe.” The ghoul agreed, “but your answer to this question will determine whether or not my boss will hire you for the job. So consider the question carefully.”

I took a drink from my beer and thought over his question. Truth be told, I always reserved hope for the impossible. Nate was the one who was the nonbeliever, the realist, the there’s-always-a-logical-explanation guy. So maybe I did get too drawn in by episodes of _Unsolved Mysteries_ while Shaun was taking a nap. Maybe the serial killer stalking Boston during the Eddie Winters killings wasn’t just ripping out people’s throats out of a sick perversion. Maybe aliens and vampires did exist. Hell, maybe bigfoot had a summer cabin out at Walden Pond. The supernatural seemed less absurd in a world with giant radiated chameleons and feral ghouls.

“Nora, you can’t be actually con—“

“— Yes. I believe in the supernatural.” I said. "To a point."

The ghoul smiled and he also looked relieved by my answer. “Well Nora. You got the job.”

He extended his mottled hand towards me and I shook it. Although rough and slightly waxy, his skin felt pleasurably warm.

“I’ll meet you outside of Diamond City first thing tomorrow and give you all the details.” He remarked.

The ghoul nodded to Nick, not in an unfriendly way but without the same protective warmth that he showed me, and then left the Dugout Inn.

I could feel Nick’s incredulity and I jutted out my jaw in defiance against it.

“You don’t have to come with.” I said.

“Doll, I may not believe in fairy tales, but I’m not gonna let you go on a wild goose chase in the wasteland without providing backup.”

There was something else bothering Nick. He lit a cigarette and brooded while I drank my beer. When I was finished and I slid off the barstool, I glanced up into his face wreathed in smoke.

“What’s wrong?”

He guided me out of the Third Rail. Most of the patrons were conversing with others or eating dinner. I doubt they were paying attention to us, but Nick waited until we had made it outside and around the corner before he spoke.

“I don’t recognize this Deegan character but the name Cabot rings a bell.” He remarked. “The family owns the Parson State Insane Asylum up in the northwestern part of the Commonwealth. There’s been reports of screams coming from inside the building, and around three years ago, a string of people disappeared and were later found with their throats ripped out.  I went up that way and poked around but nothing came of it.  The locals just chalked it up to a very aggressive deathclaw and moved on with their lives.  Things have quieted down now, and passing traders report that there are now mercenaries patrolling the outer grounds on a routine basis, but that still raises a couple of questions.”

“Which are?”

“Who are they keeping out, or what are they keeping in?”

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

For the first few days after that incident, Jack and I tried to resume our studies about how vampire blood corrupts a non-vampire host. We worked in close physical proximity but maintained a professional distance.

Nevertheless, I could tell that my blood was having an affect on his libido. The day after he bit me, Jack must’ve adjusted and cleaned his glasses more than fourteen times in an hour. I’d feel the heat of his gaze as I studied slides under a microscope, but when I’d look up, he’d quickly busy himself with some other task. The pink blush that tinged his cheeks was almost alluring enough for me to suggest that we just get everything out in the open, but I restrained myself. Taking advantage of Jack’s own arousal while my blood was making him feel that way was no better than being controlled by the thrall. No, If I were to have Jack again I’d want him completely clear-minded.

“Have you studied the S269 sample yet?” Jack asked in a higher than normal voice.

“No. I just finished cataloging the hemoglobin count for this batch of raiders.” I remarked. “Damn, chem use really messes the body up.”

“I suppose we can consider ourselves lucky that there aren’t drugged out vampire raiders somewhere out there. They’re already impulsive as it is never mind adding something like literal bloodlust to the combination and we’d all be in trouble.”

Jack scratched some notes down in a legal pad as he peered into microscope. From my vantage point, I saw the fine wisps of grey that tinged the dark hair near his jawline. Prominent crows feet crinkled in the corners of his eyes. I never thought I would get jealous of another man’s wrinkles, but here I was, envious that Jack had the choice to embrace mortality.

“I can feel you staring at me Nate.” Jack stated.

“Sorry.” I murmured. “I was … zoning out I guess.”

“And I hope it wasn’t right onto my jugular.”

“Thankfully, your blood repulses me.” I remarked.

Jack placed his glasses back on his nose and rolled his shoulders and his neck. “Sometimes I wish it didn’t.”

“What d’you mean?” I cocked an eyebrow up at him in surprise.

“I just mean,” Jack said while blushing even more, “that the looks you give Edward and I when you think we aren’t looking are so full of passion that I can feel — I feel even more drawn to you somehow.”

“You probably still have a bit of my blood in your system.” I remarked and turned back towards the microscope. “Drink some purified water. You should feel back to normal in a few hours.”

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Go ahead.” I replied as I jotted down the hemoglobin count for the next blood sample.

“At what age did you know you were attracted to men?”

I sat up straight and looked at Jack. Out of all the personal questions he could’ve asked me, this was an unexpected one. In fact, I didn’t know how to answer him. I never gave my sexuality very much thought. As a teenager, I knew I was attracted to girls. I could look at another man and say that I thought he was handsome, but it wasn’t until after I married Nora that I began to consider that men could appeal to me sexually as well.

“Is there a reason behind your question?”

Jack looked embarrassed now. “No. I — just consider it the question of an inquisitive mind, that’s all. You may physically look ten years younger than me, but I’m two hundred years older. The world treated homosexuality much differently than it did in your time.”

I shrugged. “My first experience with another man was when I was in college. We were both in the ROTC program to become officers. I wouldn’t exactly call it a relationship; we were drunk and we were both unattached at the moment, but it happened and the next morning I woke up realizing that I actually liked being with him.”

I slid another blood sample beneath the metal pins on the microscope’s platform and placed the previous slide in a box marked unviable samples.

“But then I met Nora and fell in love.” I concluded.

Jack nodded and went to the other side of the table, took the samples, and stored them in a small refrigerator beneath the countertop. The next set of test tubes that he pulled out were clearly marked with the letters N and J. They each would be putting in samples of their blood, run it through the centrifuge, and extract the serum to study how vampirism and Lorenzo’s serum affected normal blood.

“So your marriage to Nora wasn’t out of convienence?” Jack asked. He placed two syringes on the table and opened a drawer to retrieve the rubber tubing to create a tourniquet.

I opened another refrigerator and pulled out a blood pack as a precaution. “No. I loved Nora. I didn’t share all of my life with her, but once we were married, my relationships with men ended. I have never been unfaithful to her.” I replied fiercely.

“I’m sorry Nate.” Jack replied. “I hadn’t meant to insinuate that you had. I only asked because the sheer idea of homosexuality, or sodomites as we were often referred to, was forbidden to discuss among close friends let alone discuss out in the open in society. Sometimes its just refreshing to know that you are not facing the world alone.”

“Your right.” I nodded and Jack looked back at me.

His brown eyes looked youthful but I knew that he had nearly 400 years of experience that he was drawing from. “We may have lived in different times but 1877 or 2077 the world hasn’t changed its attitude about people who don’t conform to the status quo.”

“Who would’ve thought that a nuclear holocaust would have to happen for homosexuality to be accepted.” Jack quipped.

He wrapped the rubber tubing around my bicep while I swabbed the injection area with an antibacterial wipe. I was pretty sure that I couldn’t actually get sick from an infection, but old habits die hard I suppose.

“Remember, we’re going to need at least 20ccs to fill our samples.” Jack replied as he tied the tourniquet over his own pale arm.

My stomach stirred in anticipation of the needle entering my skin. I picked up the syringe and flipped on the examination lamp. I didn’t need the extra light to see my veins but Jack did.

The needle slid into my skin with ease and I swallowed the moan that threatened to spill from my throat. I pulled up on the plunger until my dark red blood reached the top line on the barrel.

Just as I was about to withdraw the needle, a voice whispered in my head. _Nathan._

I jumped and jerked the needle so violently that it broke off in my skin.

“Shit!”

“Nate, what —“

I ignored Jack’s question and set down the syringe. I grabbed the forceps and pulled the needle out before it got lost in my vein. Dark red blood flowed from the small injection site like a leak in a bag.

“Just get your sample into the test tubes. I’ll sort this out.” I said.

Truthfully, I just needed an excuse to get more space between us. There were scalpels, bone saws, and other medical implements within reach. All it would take is one strong compulsion for me to take a scalpel and slit Jack’s throat.

I grabbed a bottle of purified water and a towel and cleaned my arm over the sink.

 _What are you doing Nathan?_   The creature’s voice asked. _It feels like you’re playing without me. Needles were always your favorite, my pet._

I squeezed my eyes and gripped the sink so hard that the ceramic began cracking beneath my palm.

“Go away.” I growled.

I felt the change happen and then I felt a thirst so powerful that it rivaled the pain and unstoppable desire of my first experience with the blood lust.

 _You haven't fed from a live human in a long time._ The creature chastised. _Do you really think that fucking around on me, and with a corrupted human no less, was enough to beat the thrall?_

“Nate?” Jack asked hesitantly. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t come near me.” I snarled. My body trembled and I tried to think what I could do to stop myself form hurting Jack.

_Kill him Nathan._

“NO!” I roared.

_KILL HIM._

The thrall won. I lost myself to a blind fury. It was as though I was outside of my body watching my actions. I bolted towards Jack and grabbed him by his throat before he had any idea as to what happened. My talons pierced his skin just enough for his red, foul-smelling blood to bubble down my fingers.

_Tear his throat out._

Before I could act on that command, I heard an explosion and felt a burning pain rip through my neck. I dropped Jack and clutched at the smoking hole. Jack scrambled to his feet while keeping the gun he had fired aiming right at my head. He made it to the hallway and activated the panel sealing me into my new jail. I heard the heavy hydraulic bolts lock in place.

I heard Jack’s muffled cries and apologies but I couldn’t respond. My blood gurgled from the wound and I collapsed onto my knees and then onto my back.

My sire’s rage crackled through my nerves. I felt like I was being electrocuted, but I didn’t care. My blood stuck my hair and shirt to the tile floor, and the entire world dimmed as I bled while my body worked to repair the damage done to my neck.

Even if I somehow survived this, I’d still wake up and be plagued by thirst while my sire gave me orders to commit mass murder.

I wasn’t a big believer in a higher power, but I prayed to anyone who was listening to just let me finally die.

Apparently, there is no God after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Nate’s POV**

_“Feast your eyes on the city Nathan.” The monster’s voice was muffled from behind a gas mask. “One man’s nuclear holocaust is another’s all-you-can-eat-buffet.”_

_“We’re not men.” I replied._

_Although I couldn’t see his face, I could feel his annoyance through the thrall. “It’s a figure of speech, Nathan.”_

_I gazed out on what remained of Boston. My own gas mask tinted the city green and I dared not remove it while we were out of the bunker. Horrified shrieks, errant gunfire, and the occasional explosion punctuated the eerie night. A fine layer of ash and dirt settled over the city, and the air stank of sulfur and chlorine._

_Forty days had passed since that first night when I gave in to the temptation and forever dammed my soul. There was no turning back now. I was dammed. I was just like him._

_The monster — he had taken to calling himself my sire — never took his eyes off the Geiger Counter as we crossed from rooftop to rooftop in Cambridge Square like we were hopping stone to stone across a moving river. My sire never slowed down to wait for me to acclimate to the enhanced dexterity and speed given to me as a result of my cursed condition. He expected that I learn quickly and without complaint. He was slow to give praise and quick to criticize, and his orders were law. I could not refuse him, even if I wanted to._

_We stopped on a rooftop overlooking the entrance to the College Square subway station. Most of the students who had survived the initial blasts had taken refuge in the subway systems, but they’d have to emerge eventually to scavenge for food and clean water, so like two foxes hunting rabbits, we waited._

_“Listen Nathan.” He said. “Can you hear their heartbeats?”_

_I closed my eyes and focused all of my senses outward. I felt the tendrils of the change tickle across my face as I tapped into this otherworldly power. Like a bat with echolocation, I could see rough outlines of people if I focused hard enough. Hell, the best military sonar couldn’t compare to the ways vampires had in finding prey._

_“There’s two groups.” I said. “The group that’s settled in the western part of the subway station has seven people … no, eight. One of them is pregnant. The other group is farther down in the eastern track heading towards Malden. They’re five strong.”_

_“Six.” My sire corrected._

_“Six.” I sighed in agreement. “But neither group seems to be restless or moving around. They’re all probably resting for the night.”_

_“What d’you say my pet? Want to try your hand at some close quarters hunting? We could walk the subway tracks back to the bunker, or we could stay underground until tomorrow night if the hunting goes badly.”_

_“Fine.”_

_“Don’t sound so enthused, Nathan. Your excitement is too much for me to bear.” The monster deadpanned, but his annoyance lashed out at me through the thrall like a whip._

_“I’m sorry.” I flinched. Apologizing was getting to be a gut reaction. I felt like a beaten dog that whimpered whenever his master raised a hand in its direction._

_“Let’s go introduce ourselves to our new friends.” My sire’s fangs glinted in the moonlight as he smiled. “I’ll even save the pregnant one for you. Infant blood tastes the sweetest of all.”_

_My nails lengthened and my fangs pressed into my lower lip. The monster inside me had taken over._

_I imagined how she’d sob and scream as I took her in my arms. I’d bite into her soft flesh and drain her first and then I’d slice into her and extract her infant. If she was far enough along, the baby would likely survive for a few minutes outside of its mother. Maybe the baby would shriek or maybe its heartbeat would be weak from its mother’s own malnourishment. No matter what, the idea of extinguishing a life that had yet to begin no longer weighed on my conscious._

_Morality didn’t matter when you lived in a literal Hell. Nothing mattered to me anymore. Nothing mattered except quenching the hunger._

_“Let’s go my pet.” My sire commanded._

_We both dropped from the rooftop and landed softly on the cracked asphalt and dirt. We moved like shadows and made no sound as we descended the stairs that led to the subway platforms._

_There would be no survivors._

Several drained blood bags sat in a pile near my feet and I gulped down the remaining blood in the last bag like a greedy nursing child.

I didn’t know how much time had passed since I attacked Jack. All I knew was that it was midnight and that I was still unbearably thirsty.

I tossed the empty plastic bag in the biohazard bin, but it bounced off the rim and landed on the linoleum floor with a dull plop. I looked at the scene with detached interest. Even after five pints of blood, my body still felt sluggish, actually, I also felt kind of drunk or maybe high. That sometimes happened when I consumed blood that was tainted because the donor was a chem fiend and ignored all of the Red Cross literature about blood donations. That type of blood couldn’t hurt me, but it did affect me similar to a contact high. Nevertheless my body was actively repairing itself; a feat alone which still required even more blood, and unfortunately, that tap was now dry.

I brought a trembling hand to feel the gunshot wound. Thankfully the bullet passed through the skin and muscles cleanly without severing any important artery. Somehow the bullet even missed my spinal column (which was a miracle as I’d be rendered paralyzed until my body repaired the damage). The bullet had severed part of my windpipe which only recently healed. The suffocating feeling persisted until the damage finally healed and that alone took two hours. I still had a good six hours before I would have enough strength to pull myself to my feet and hobble back to my jail cell, so I rested my head against the laboratory table and waited.

My shirt was caked with dark red, dried blood and my neck and shoulders ached and itched relentlessly. My fingertips were stained red from Jack’s blood and I clenched my hand into a fist so I wouldn’t have to look at the evidence.

Still … It didn’t matter. I had attacked Jack. I literally tried to rip his throat out, and I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. The guilt over what I did made my chest ache and if Jack was indeed dead, I’d be the first to fall onto my own sword. After all, Jack’s laboratory had more than enough material in which I could use to dispatch myself once and for all.

_Nathan speak to me._

The sudden intrusion of his voice in my mind made me jostle so hard that blood began leaking from the scabbed over neck wound. I shuddered and shut my eyes tight like a frightened child’s. The voice … his voice … was soft and paternal.

_Please Nathan._

It was a request, not a command. That was his tactic. He’d exact his rage on me or use me as the harbinger for his dark desires and then nurse me back to health. Well this time I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

_You are injured. Please let me help you. Show me where you are._

I safeguarded my mind as the thrall pulled at my temples. The name, Parsons State Insane Asylum, was on the tip of my tongue and ready to be spilled, so I bit into my flesh so hard that my eyes watered.

“Go … away.” I growled. “Leave me alone.”

_You know he’s dead Nathan. You killed your boyfriend._

His taunt cut into me like a knife and I curled in on myself. Rusty flakes of dried blood fell to the floor and I wrapped my hands around my head. The monster’s voice echoed in my skull as I closed my eyes and tried to push him out through sheer willpower.

_You’ve killed him_

_You’ve …. ki …. hi…_

_Y….kil…_

Like a radio losing frequency, my sire’s taunts became less and less noticeable as I went into the deepest parts of my mind and closed off my thoughts and emotions. The thrall’s power couldn’t reach me here.

I heard no other sounds and felt no sensations. It felt blissful, really. However, the trade off in using this skill was that it left me wide open to memories that I had long repressed — memories of my human life: memories of Nora and memories of the War.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

After Nick and I met with Edward Deegan, I started to wonder whether the ghoul was all there mentally.

The way he spoke made it seem like he was seconds away from spilling some big secret. He’d often start a sentence, pause as he considered his next words, then shook his head and start a completely new sentence.

Nick immediately called him out on his odd behavior but the ghoul shrugged off Nick’s question.

“Having secrets isn’t a crime.” He replied. “And my boss isn’t paying you to pry in on my secrets. He wants you to find his sister. When you do and when you convince her to come back home, you are to report back to me for your payment. I’ll be waiting at Cabot House near Bunker Hill.”

And so we were off on this wild woman chase across a good chunk of Boston. Nick and I bounced from The Third Rail to an underground parking garage, which only housed an ornery molerat brood, and then back to the Third Rail to then be sent to some waterfront amphitheater.

“You better not be giving us a bum steer again.” Nick huffed as Magnolia puffed idly on a cigarette.

“I’m only trying to look out for the girl.” Magnolia replied stiffly. “She’s a wild, beautiful thing, but she’s also too hot-headed for her own good. Consider my little fib just me trying to earn back some karma.”

By the time Nick and I made it to the amphitheater, our patience was running low and our tempers were short.

“So how d’you wanna play it?” Nick asked me.

The men congregating around the junk piles and trash fires outside the amphitheater seemed harmless. A few had pool cues and baseball bats strapped to their backs, but none looked to be carrying a holster or any heavy fire power.

“Let’s just go in and ask around. Keep a low profile in case they … you know …”

“There’s gonna be bigots wherever we go. It’s kinda hard to keep a low profile with this mug.” Nick growled.

“Well at least try.” I urged.

We both stepped out from the brambles and approached a young man with dishwater blond hair and a face full of acne and dirt who was sitting on a truck tire smoking a cigarette.

“Excuse me. We’re looking for a woman named Emogene Cabot. D’you know her?” I asked.

The man’s watery blue eyes glanced at the two of us suspiciously, “Oh…Emogene…yeah. You’d better talk to Brother Thomas about that.”

“And where is this Brother Thomas guy?” Nick asked.

The man rose from his seat, stubbed out his cigarette with the sole of his boot, and then turned to us. His eyes went wide when he set his sights on Nick. “Holy shit. You’re a synth!”

“Look kid, I’m not gonna hurt —“

But before Nick could placate the boy, he took off running towards the brick building that was behind the amphitheater.

“God Dammit.” I muttered. I was about to run after him but Nick held onto my shoulder.

“Not yet, doll. Don’t go rushing off into trouble just yet. If we can’t find this Brother Thomas then this kid will certainly help him find us.”

Sure enough, heavy footsteps crunched through the dirt and gravel and a handsome, sandy-haired man with a pencil-thin mustache dressed in a threadbare suit came around the corner. Compared to the dirty vagabond kid, he was freshly bathed and his clothes were clean.

“Good evening.” He said cordially and gave us both a nod. “You gave Brother Kimmins quite a fright. He said there was synth was in our midsts.”

“I’m one of the friendly ones.” Nick stated firmly. “My partner can back me up on that.”

The man turned to me and smiled. “Oh, well please forgive my rudeness. I didn’t see we had a beautiful rose, such as yourself, in our company.”

I stifled an eye roll and returned his smile. “That’s alright. We just came by because Emogene Cabot told us about this place and suggested that we take a look. Is she here? I’d love if she could introduce me to some of your members.”

“Emogene never told me she was out recruiting.” His smile somehow got wider and a little more sinister. “Isn’t it … serendipitous that we have two fresh openings in our little establishment? We even accept synths provided that they are on their best behavior.”

Nick gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the dehumanizing remark but said nothing.

“Oh … well, I’m not ready to commit to anything just yet.” I remarked, “But Emogene had nothing but good things to say about this place. I’d be more comfortable giving you a firm commitment after talking with her.”

The man’s one hundred watt fake smile dimmed a little in annoyance, “Emogene isn’t here, sadly. But you’re welcome to look around. Just please be respectful of my congregation. They’ve come here to unburden themselves from life’s material sins and many of them are in deep meditation.”

Nick grunted in grudging acknowledgement and pushed past the man and started towards the amphitheater stage. I followed after him all the while feeling the man’s lecherous eyes raking over the tight fitting vault suit that I wore.

The amphitheater was partially collapsed in the back but the front stage had been repurposed into makeshift sleeping quarters. Bedrolls and dirty mattresses were tucked against plywood barriers. Men huddled around trashcan fires looking dirty, malnourished, and miserable. They barely paid us any mind as we weaved through the throngs of people to search through the various nooks and crannies.

“If Emogene was here, I doubt she’d be out in the open.” I murmured to Nick.

“There’s an office around back that’s lookin’ mighty suspicious and lonely.” He replied. “And that’s where Brother Thomas came from in the first place. You mind creating a diversion so I can do a little poking around without that Brother Thomas breathing down my neck?”

“Consider him distracted.”

Nick’s eyes flicked up to mine. Concern and slight jealousy tainted his expression. “Be careful, doll. There’s some sharp teeth behind that fake smile of his.”

I smirked, “Where’s the fun if you don’t get bit a little in the process?”

I heard Nick exhale long and low and felt his eyes on my back as I walked away from him.

Maybe I had more sway in my hips than necessary, and maybe I was being a little cruel by playing on Nick’s not-so-subtle feelings for me. Still, after all that Nick and I had gone through with Skinny Malone and with hunting down Kellogg, I felt drawn to him in ways I couldn’t really explain.

When he’d talk, I’d hear echoes of the real Nick Valentine in my head. He walked the same way, used the same mannerisms, and even had the same irrational dislike of flying insects. Okay, maybe it wasn’t irrational now since the mosquitoes, houseflies, and dragonflies were the size of large dogs, but the line that divided Nick Valentine and Synth Nick Valentine in the man’s head wasn’t there to me. This Nick _was_ Nick, even if the outside no longer matched the man I once knew.

In fact, when I set eyes on this Nick Valentine, I thought someone was playing an absurd trick. I thought I had walked into a Nuka World-esque exhibit that had taken a valued member of the Boston Police Department and turned him into an animatronic of some kind. Of course, Nick didn’t take kindly to my observation.

I smirked at the memory and at his pained expression when I asked him if he was a robot of some kind.

“Robot? I’m a detective like I said. Look, I know the skin and the metal bits ain’t comforting but that’s not what matters right now. The only thing that matters is why you went through the trouble to — Jesus Christ … Nora? Is that really you?”

Ever since that reunion, Nick and I hadn’t been apart for longer than a couple of days. He claimed that he felt guilty leaving me alone in a world like this without ‘catching me up to speed’ on how to live amid nuclear radiation, mutated animals, and chemmed out raiders, but when push came to shove, we enjoyed each other’s company. The damnedest part was that I was starting to enjoy a lot more than just that.

Before the bombs fell, Nick Valentine was a force to be reckoned with and as an apprentice law student in my last semester of practicum studies, I looked up to the man. Hell, I idolized him. Most cops, especially Boston cops, were cocky and hot-headed. I once witnessed an interrogation where a cop lambasted and verbally assaulted a hooker for not giving up the name of her pimp who was suspected in running cocaine and heroine across state lines. The cop was screaming in her face so hard that the spittle from his overweight gob rained all over the hooker’s already smeared makeup. Most cops were either disgusting lechers, power-hungry pricks, or apathetic desk jockeys.

But Nick Valentine was different.

I only got to observe him once before the whole Eddie Winters mess happened, but what I saw was damn close to magical.

The interrogation that I observed involved a man who was had a rap sheet a mile long. From sex trafficking, to extortion, and even three count of aggravated sexual assault, this monster called Nick every name, cuss word, and slur in the book. Nick didn’t rise to the goading but he also didn’t just roll over and take the assault. He had done his research on the man. He knew the who the man’s family was, the names of his three children (both from three different women), and the fact that he had a crippling meth addiction.

After a half an hour of taking the abuse, Nick slid the man a canister of addictol and a glass of water. He said nothing and Nick didn’t respond. These two men must’ve sat in complete silence for nearly ten minutes before the criminal took the addictol, finished the glass of water, asked for another, and then confessed everything right then and there.

Even now, in a world where rape, murder, and sadism were the norm, Nick could sit in a room with the worse sorts of people and do the one thing most monsters never expected would happen during an interrogation: he would listen.

“Brother Thomas!” I called out.

I crossed the sun-scorched sand at a fast walk without looking too eager or frantic. I plastered a friendly and slightly vague smile onto my face and crossed my arms across my stomach. I tried to telegraph that I wasn’t a threat. That I, a poor, weak, and helpless woman, wasn’t concealing two knives and an automatic pistol somewhere on my body.  
  
“Brother Thomas, could I trouble you a bit longer? I wanted to ask you about your organization here. I’m interested in learning more about what you all do.”

“Where’s the synth you were with?” He asked suspiciously

“Nick encountered a system memory loop and he’s doing a soft reboot.” I rambled off. “He’ll be fine in ten minutes or so. This happens quite often actually. He’s one of those Gen-2 kinds, ya know. I’m use to it.”

I walked in front of Brother Thomas so he’d be forced to turn his back to the amphitheater so Nick could sneak around back and poke around the storage room.

“It’s unfortunate that such a beautiful woman such as yourself is stuck with a synth instead of a man who could protect her.” Brother Thomas remarked. His hand reached up to brush my hair behind my ear, and it took every bit of my self-control to not smack his hand away.

“Well…” I lowered my voice conspiratorially. “I was actually hoping to — you know — broaden my horizons so to speak. Now I couldn’t say this in front of my partner because he’d take it hard, but I am interested in joining your organization. I — I’ve had a rough go of things recently and I just don’t know how I’m going to survive in a world like this.”

Brother Thomas tutted and rubbed my shoulders and upper arms. “Yes, I imagine the culture shock must’ve been terrible when you finally left your vault. But surely you’re not alone. Where did the rest of your vault migrate to?”

“There were no survivors … except for me.” I replied softly.

“Oh my dear…” The man’s hands ran from my shoulders and down my arms until he was grasping both of my hands. “Then let us not delay any longer. You are the perfect candidate for an organization like this. Many of us who come here searching for meaning in life come from pasts that are distasteful.”

I let him guide me away from the amphitheater. His hand never left at my lower back as we walked, and I knew he was waiting for the perfect time to lower his hand so it “accidentally” grazed my ass.”

“We do require that all of our new members go through an interview.” He remarked with an air of regret, “The interview is purely informal…it’s more of a get-to-know-you type of discussion before we formally welcome you into the group.”

“That sounds great!” I replied with a faux smile of my own. “What would you like to know about me?”

“Oh no no,” He lowered his voice and I caught the edge of seduction that trailed after his words, “not here. I conduct the interviews in my office. It is far more comfortable than being out in this drafty weather.”

My heard thudded in my throat as I allowed him to guide me towards the concrete building behind the amphitheater. I hope Nick had enough time to find clues as to where this Emogene might be stowed away.

“In here please.” Brother Thomas gestured towards a metal blue door.

I pressed down on the cold, metal handle and cautiously opened the door. Thankfully and regretfully, Nick was nowhere to be seen and so I stepped into the proverbial lion’s den. The door closed behind us with an audible clunk, yet the cold outside remained and chilled me through my suit.

“Please have a seat my dear.” He replied and indicated a weatherbeaten blue polyester chair.

I sat and expected him to sit in the wooden chair behind the desk, but instead, he sat on the edge of the desk right in front of me.

“Tell me something. Do you ever feel like this whole world is broken? Do you ever wonder why things can’t be the way they were in the good ol’ days?”

“More than you could know.” I responded sincerely.

“Well my dear, you’ve come to the right place. See, we are called The Pillars of the Community and we are here because we think the world should go back to its Old World values.”

“Weird…I haven’t heard of you guys before.”

Brother Thomas leaned forward but his smile took on a more threatening shade, “We’re a pretty … new … movement. But although we’re new, I can assure you that our mission is to make the Commonwealth better for each and every person here. We plan to go back to the Old World values — you know the ones — the kinds of things you’ve probably read about or seen on the billboards around town.”

“And what values are you talking about exactly?”

“Why I’m talking about peace and prosperity for everyone. All of us here are a family and we look out for one another. Nobody wants for anything with us and all of them are free from the sins and troubles that weigh them down.”

“Okay…” I replied. “And what do I need to do to join?”

Brother Thomas’s smile became a full Cheshire cat-like grin, “Oh it’s simple really. First you must part with your worldly goods and enter into your new life unencumbered and unburdened by material sins.”

“Y-you mean like give you everything I’m carrying?” I clarified.

“Why, yes. Of course.”

“And if I don’t?” I asked

The smile on Brother Thomas’s face fell faster than a falling bomb. “Then I will take everything from you by force.”

“You can’t really think that I would just give you all of my stuff.” I countered. “That’s insane.”

He laughed. It was a cold, cruel laugh that I had heard on various other criminals who were blinded by their own hubris. “Sweetheart, every single person out there turned over damn near everything in search of this elusive idea of enlightenment. You may call it insane, but I call it business.”

“So you’re just a thug. You’re no different than the raiders that rob farms or homesteads instead of farming for themselves.”

Brother Thomas sighed, “Give me everything now, including your tight little Vault suit, or I’ll blow your damned brains out right here.”

I stood abruptly just as the door was kicked open. Brother Thomas pulled a 10mm pistol and aimed it at my head all while Nick aimed his pipe revolver at Brother Thomas.

“Alright bud, put the gun down and nobody’ll get hurt.” Nick ordered.

Things moved too fast for me to register but I heard a gunshot and flinched. An explosion of red came from Brother Thomas’s hand and he dropped the gun onto the floor between us. I quickly backed away from him and drew my own gun while Nick rushed forward and kicked his gun away.

“Now we’re gonna ask you two important questions and we need you to be straight with us.” I snarled. “Where is Emogene Cabot?”

Just then I heard a muffled scream come from behind a door and Brother Thomas’s face flushed with rage.

“Fine. Go ahead. I was done with that uptight bitch anyway.” He spat.

“Alright bud, c’mon.” Nick huffed and he hauled Brother Thomas to his feet by the back of his collar and slapped handcuffs on him.

While Nick pushed him out of the room, I pulled a bobby pin from the several that were clipped to my sleeve and fiddled with the lock. It was well oiled, thankfully, but it took me two tries before the tumblers clicked and the metal handle gave way.

The other room was small and only held two dirty mattresses propped up on an intact king-sized bed frame. Half burnt candles decorated the room and the air smelled stale and faintly like sweat.

Our woman in question was lying on one of the mattresses. Her hands and feet were bound and a cloth gag was tied around her head.

I pulled the gag down her chin and off her face. Her skin felt velvety and thin beneath my fingers, similar to how my grandmother’s skin felt when I’d kiss her on the cheek.

“I’m assuming my brother sent you?” Her haughty, irritated voice replied.

“Actually Edward Deegan sent us.” I replied as I cut the ropes that bound her hands and feet. “I’m assuming he works for your brother?”

She scoffed, “He works for our whole family. He always has. And he’s always been the one to do Jack’s dirty work when Jack’s not man enough to do it himself.”

When she sat up, a beam of light from a cracked and shoddily boarded up window fell across her face and I gasped.

Emogene stood up, brushed off her pale yellow sundress, and glared at me with shrewd eyes. Her hair was cut in a fashionable bob but her hair was steel grey and the wrinkles framing her eyes and lips made her look like a woman in her sixties.

“Close your mouth dear, you look like a fish.” She snapped.

I closed my mouth, not even aware I had it open in the first place, and followed her out of the small room.

Here was this woman, who looked to be no younger than sixty, moving, talking, and acting like a woman three or four decades younger. The stress and hard living from the wasteland naturally aged people faster than my time, but this … this was different. Something was off and I couldn’t put a finger on what it was.

I cleared my throat, “My partner Nick is waiting outside with Brother Thomas. We’re going to drop him off at the Diamond City lockup and then escort you home.”

She snorted, “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you bring him back to Edward and my brother with a big old bow on his head. I’m sure Edward will want to have some words with him. In the meantime, I’m gonna head out. I need a drink after all this excitement.”

“Um … we’re kinda on a timetable of our own.” I interjected. “Please, Edward was pretty clear that we were to bring you back to the Cabot house immediately.”

“Of course he was.” She snapped, “But he knows that I’m not a woman who does what she is told. Not anymore at least.”

Nick walked back to us and looked from Emogene to me and then back to Emogene. He was far better at schooling his expression into something more neutral, but I could tell that he was still shocked.”

“So … is this the dame?”

“This is Emogene Cabot.” I clarified.

Nick grunted in affirmation, “Well let’s get going. I’d like to get you home before nightfall and that paramour of yours will not stop flapping his gob about this or that. So c’mon, doll.”

“Look, unless you plan to kidnap me, I’m not going.” Emogene snapped.

“Lady, me and my partner have spent a better part of a day tracking you down when we could’ve been working on other missing person cases that are more important. If you don’t go back home willingly, I’ll bring you there by force.”

Nick withdrew a second set of handcuffs from his pocket and moved to grab the woman’s wrists, but she struck out like a radscorpion and knocked them from his hand. She spun on her heels and landed a punch that sounded like a rock hurtling against a metal drum.

Nick’s head snapped back and he staggered but didn’t go down. Then Emogene rounded on me and I held my hands up in surrender.

“Hey. Hey…calm down Emogene.” I said. “If you’re not gonna go back, then we can’t make you but you didn’t have to punch my partner.”

She smoothed her immaculately pressed dress and felt her hair before drawing herself up to full height. Her cold eyes glanced at Nick who was still holding his jaw. Grating metal against metal sounds met our ears and I winced. It sounded like his jaw…his Institute-quality stainless steel metal jaw … was broken.

“Your partner is lucky. If I was at my full strength, I would’ve punched his head clean off his body.” She hissed.

Brother Thomas, who was now handcuffed to a metal chainlink fence looked on the scene as though he was watching us square off against a deathclaw rather than an extraordinarily strong sixty year old woman. In his eyes, we were dead men walking.

“Emogene, we just came here to rescue you.” I said and kept my hands up. “Now we’ve done that. You’re free to go.”

“You’re damn right I am.” She snapped. “Oh and when you see Edward or my brother, you tell them that my payment is due, and I wont be kept waiting this time.”

Without elaborating, Emogene turned and walked down the shoreline. I watched her until she crossed the ferry bridge and made her way up towards Cambridge. I wasn’t sure what sort of bar she was looking for, but I figured that she’d be able to handle herself if she got into any trouble.

I turned back to Nick and grabbed his chin and gently turned his face away so I could look into the torn skin and see the damage.

“Jesus Christ.” I cursed. “She cracked your jaw.”

“Arturo will weld it.” He growled and picked up his fedora from the ground.

“No…Nick. She cracked your jaw like it was nothing. What the Hell…”

Nick shrugged away and marched towards Brother Thomas. “Explain.”

“What?!”

“How is that dame so damn strong?” He asked. “What sort of chems did ya give her?”

Brother Thomas struggled to his feet. The metal handcuffs slid up the broken chain link fence pole sending a shower of rust to the ground.

“I didn’t give her any chems. We don’t do that sort of thing. We rob people and sell their belongings to passing traders. Drugs are specifically against our mission.”

“Quick someone give him a medal of honor.” I replied dryly.

“If you didn’t give her chems, then how in the Hell could a woman like that punch me so hard that she cracked my damn jaw?” Nick snapped.

Brother Thomas’s eyes widened and he looked like a kid who was caught between telling a lie and getting in trouble and telling the truth but getting in even worse trouble.

“I — I — I don’t know…”

“Bullshit.” I countered.

He sighed and then looked around in case we were overheard, “There are rumors that her family is … _immortal_.”

Nick snorted, “All right, I’ve heard enough.”

“What do you mean immortal? As in she can’t die?” I asked.

“No I’m pretty sure she can die. We got a little too frisky when we were playing and … well … let’s just say she bleeds like you or me but …”

“Nora let’s go.” Nick groused. “This man will feed ya any story just to get out of this.”

I held up my hand and shook my head. “But what?”

Brother Thomas looked half scared and half jealous, “I — I saw her taking something. Not a chem exactly but she did inject it into her arm. She didn’t know I was there. This was four or five months ago when I was courting her down at the Third Rail. She injected this stuff, shuddered a bit like it had refreshed her, and went back to the bar.”

“I don’t see the” —

— “She went back looking twenty years younger.” Brother Thomas interrupted. “Even that singer commented on it. She said somethin’ like ‘I wish I had what you just took.’ But there are no chems on this earth that can do that…”

“Do what?” I prodded. I suspected what he meant but I wanted him to confirm it himself.

“There are no chems that can make you become young again.” He whispered in a low, scared voice.

Nick and I glanced at each other over the top of the man’s head. I thought back to our previous conversation about the Cabots and about the Parsons State Insane Asylum. If Edward was keeping a secret from us, then this life-prolonging chem could be it. Maybe Edward hired us to get Emogene back because she was being too indiscreet. Or maybe it was so she could get that “payment” that she was expecting.

Regardless of the reason, I was getting more and more anxious to pay a visit to that old Asylum and see what these Cabots were hiding.


	6. Chapter 6

**Jack’s POV**

“Jesus Jack, what the Hell happened?” Edward growled.

Dawn was just about to break as I limped across the threshold of my family’s ancestral home and collapsed into a plush red armchair.

“Are you talking about my leg or my neck?” I groaned.

I poured myself three fingers of whisky from the bottle that was sitting on the nearby end table and took a long draught of the amber liquid. I rarely drank and the alcohol made my head spin, but it certainly would help dull the pain until Edward could fetch me the Med-X.

“You look like you were mauled by a Yao Guai.” Edward replied.

“Well, you’d be half right. A deathclaw hatchling near the Slog mistook my leg for a scratching post while I was picking some glowing mushrooms and bloodleaf to replenish some of our routine medical supplies back at Parsons. I patched myself up as best I could at the Slog but time was of the essence.”

“Why not just go back to Parsons and patch yourself up in your lab?” Edward asked. Although the ghoul wasn’t a scientist, he wasn’t dumb and his second question came quickly on the heels of his first. “Wait…where’s Nate? What happened?”

I shook my head. I didn’t quite understand it either but the puncture wounds from his savage grip still burned beneath the white gauze bandages I wore.

“The thrall is getting worse it seems.” I replied. “Even after I … you know …“ I cleared away the embarrassed lump that had suddenly formed in my throat, “I thought it would be okay. He seemed normal but then something switched in his head. We were cataloguing blood samples and suddenly his sire was ordering him to kill me. I — I had to defend myself.”

“What did you do?”

I shuddered and a sob caught in my throat which I pushed down with more whisky. “Jesus Edward — I — I shot him in the throat! He immediately let go of me and I locked him in the lab. I didn’t know what else to do!”

“Is he alive?” Edward’s usual rough voice was uncharacteristically soft.

“I don’t know.” I admitted weakly. “I just don’t know.”  
  
Edward sighed, “Well what’s done is done. You’re dead on your feet Jack. C’mon, let’s get you fixed up and get you into bed. I’ll leave right away and head back to Parsons to see what I can do.”

I wanted to protest but the whisky was having its intended effect. My eyelids felt heavy and I leaned against Edward as he helped me to my feet.

The portrait of my father and my late mother leered down disapprovingly at me. My mother was far more sympathetic of my relationship with Edward, but my sexuality had always been a source of contention between my Father and I. Father wanted to fire Edward from our service and have him jailed for being a sodomite when he heard that Emogene had caught us together in a rather compromising position, but my Mother refused. It’s not because she supported the relationship, but because Edward was a damn good assistant and was loyal to the our family. He stuck by us when he learned the truth about my Father’s serum, then again when our family came under fire for being suspected communists (which was as ridiculous as it was false), and then again when the world ended and humanity destroyed itself.

Edward helped me hobble up the staircase. Each hop sent a burning fire through the veins in my legs and thighs. It was very possible that the deathclaw had infected me with a disease when it scratched me.

“I need you to do a blood draw first.” I said. Thanks to the whisky, I had to concentrate twice as hard to formulate a coherent sentence.

“What for?”

We had made it to the second floor landing and I swayed against Edward whose rough, strong hands caught me so I didn’t fall backward. “What for Jack?” He repeated again.

I shook my head and tried to clear away the sleep that was quickly encroaching. “For science Edward. I might … I might be infected with something.”

“You’re definitely infected.” He replied feeling my forehead with the back of his mottled hand. “You’re burning up.”

“Well then I need to study it.” I half-whined. “Just put some of my blood in a vial and” —

— “No dammit. Enough okay? Between you and Nate, it’s a wonder I even have a job with how you two like to use your bodies as part of the science experiments. Now just sit here and let me patch you up. No more science talk, not tonight okay?”

I did was I was told, mostly because I was too exhausted and buzzed to do much else, and rested my head against the back of the chair.

Edward handed me two multi-colored pills and a canister of water. I swallowed both without prompting and finished the water in several gulps.

“Take off your pants.” He commanded.

“You could buy me dinner first.” I grinned. Yep, the alcohol had certainly loosened my tongue.

Edward chuckled and then smirked. I knew he was suppressing a more inappropriate comment.

Nevertheless, I obeyed. I sucked in air and suppressed a pained whimper as the black synthetic fabric from my pants peeled away from the fresh wounds. I climbed onto the medical table while trying to suppress the embarrassment and slight arousal I felt at being in my underwear, on my belly, and in this kind of compromising position. It was purely medical, I kept telling myself, but that didn’t stop my face from flushing red.

Edward let out a low whistle upon seeing the damage but set to work right away.

“Why didn’t you use any stimpaks at the Slog?” Edward chastised.

“I did.” I gritted out as he sanitized the three long, deep gouge marks that ran across the back of my thighs and calves. “But the … the serum negates other healing agents and makes them less effective. Lucifer’s balls that hurts!”

“Stop being a baby Jack. You don’t squirm this much when you’re poking your arm with needles.” Edward huffed.

“A needle poke and a deathclaw mauling are two entirely different things!” I protested.

“You weren’t mauled you drama queen.” He rebuked. “If you were mauled I’d be finding your internal organs strewn across that gully outside of Parsons.”

My stomach lurched at the thought and I cradled my head into my hands, “Okay okay. Let’s change the subject.”

Edward grunted in response but I couldn’t see his face to tell if it was in approval or irritation.

After he disinfected the wounds and cleaned the area, he said “Well none of these look like they need stitches which is good, but you probably do have some sort of infection. I suggest going off the serum for a bit while the antibiotics do what they need to do. I bought some food from Bunker Hill which will keep for a week or two. Unless you need me, I’ll take my leave now and head back to Parsons and see what’s happened to Nate.”

“I — I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

I rotated my torso so I could look back at Edward. My glasses were beginning to mist a little and I wiped at the burgeoning tears. My father’s taunting voice to stop being such a “damn pussy” echoed in my head.

“Nate. I — I didn’t have a choice.” I said. “Right?”

Edward sighed. “No you didn’t Jack. We knew what he was and what that meant…what that would mean if something were to happen.”

“I’ve never killed anyone before!” I interjected. My heart seized up from the guilt and fear that I had finally succumb to the wasteland’s brutality.

Edward cupped the side of my face and wiped away at another tear that had fallen. “Nate’s a tough one. He survived the shit that monster put him through. He survived the fallout from the bombs while yours truly was coughing his lungs up in the bathroom downstairs. He’ll survive this.”

He cleared his throat and for a moment I saw the mask of stoicism fall away. Edward looked doubtful.

“Edward?” I murmured.

He shook his head, cleared his throat once more, and helped me off the table. He handed me a fresh pair of pants and took my desecrated pair.

“I’m gonna go burn these in the furnace in the basement, then I’m gonna head out. Behave, okay?”

“Let me know when you get to Parsons. Use the old HAM radio in the administrator’s office, and give me the full report about …” The rest of the sentence died in my throat.

“I will.” Edward promised. He approached me and kissed me once on the lips. His blue eyes were now rimmed with yellow and red as his body succumbed to the ravages of radiation, but they still held the same appeal to me as they did nearly 250 years ago.

I pulled him in once more and kissed him again. The spicy scent of pipe tobacco wafted up and reminded me of the night that Edward and I first kissed.

He pulled away and patted me once on the cheek. “I got a couple people stopping by here with Emogene. I hired them to find her and bring her home. There’s caps in the safe downstairs as payment. 200 is a fair price. Don’t let them dicker you for a higher fee.”

I nodded and then just like that, Edward was gone and I was left alone in my father’s laboratory.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

“Those Cabots aren’t normal. You gotta believe me!” Brother Thomas whined as Nick kept his gun trained at his back while we walked along the Charles River.

Our first plan, to bring this charlatan to Diamond City’s lockup, was contingent on having Emogene come back with us as proof that we did the job. Now without Emogene, we were left in the lurch.

“Do you suppose Deegan will believe us?” I whispered to Nick.

“God I hope so.” He replied. “Otherwise this job was a complete waste of time.”

“I wouldn’t say a complete waste.” I smirked, “I did get watch you get your ass kicked by a sixty year old woman.”

Nick scowled and rubbed his jaw. “If Arturo asks how this happened, make up some yarn about me saving you from a rampaging Yao Guai or —“

“You know Arturo’s not gonna believe that.” I interjected. “I could say you got kicked in the head by a brahmin.”

“Fine.” Nick grumbled, clearly annoyed.

“Hey. I was just kidding.” I replied softly. “She would’ve kicked my ass too.”

He shook his head, “I ain’t sore about that, doll. I’m just … confused. _How_ did she do that.”

“I told you! That woman isn’t human!” Brother Thomas called back only to be shoved forward by Nick.

“Do I need to gag you like you did to that so-called inhuman woman?” Nick snapped.

Brother Thomas hung his head and resumed his slow trudge forward in silence.

“If she isn’t human, then what is she?” I asked Nick.

“I dunno.” He murmured. “I just dunno.”

As we walked, the ancient but immaculate facade of the old Cabot House came into view. Construction barricades blocked the alleyway and one large plywood sign had the words: “PRIVATE PROPERTY. KEEP OUT” spray painted on it in black.

A sentry bot idled across the courtyard and a Mister Gutsy patrolled while whistling a jaunty, patriotic tune.

Back in my day, the Boston Historical Society had used the Old Cabot House as a museum of oddities and curiosities. Most of the stuff in the museum was clearly bullshit, but some of the research presented, especially regarding extraterrestrial life forms seemed possible. Of course, I never told anyone that I bought into that, but there it was. Thanks to the compelling evidence shown in these exhibits, I’m not ashamed to say that I believe in aliens.

Nick pressed the silver intercom buzzer near the ornate entry door and waited.

“H-hello?” A voice responded. This voice sounded nothing like Edward Deegan’s typical ghoulish growl so I assumed this must’ve been Emogene’s brother that she spoke not-so-fondly about.

“Hello?” I answered. “We’re here because Edward Deegan hired us to find Emogene Cabot.”

“Oh yes, yes. I was expecting you. Come in.”

The door buzzed and I opened it. I entered while Brother Thomas and Nick trailed in behind me. For being over 200 years old, the interior of the mansion looked nearly as clean and put together as it did from when I last visited … in 2075.

We walked down the hallway and entered the clean living room. The glass exhibits and plaques had long been removed, but the portraits of the original Cabots hung over the grand staircase no worse for wear.

Brother Thomas whistled low in appreciation and I smirked. I wondered how the other Pillars of the Community folks would react to being in a place as lavish as this.

“Hello?” I called out.

A figure came out to the second floor landing and looked down at us. The resemblance between him and the portrait of the original founder was uncanny. His face held the same look of stern, paternal contempt when idle and sported the same dark features as his predecessor.  
  
“You must be Nora.” The man replied.

“Sorry? Do I know you?” I asked.

He shook his head and descended the stairs. He took his time and seemed to favor his left side as though he was healing from an injury.

“Forgive me.” He replied, “I’m Jack Cabot. Edward told me you were coming. And where is Emogene?”

I exhaled. Here we go, I thought.

“She refused to come back.” I replied. “We tried and came just short of kidnapping before she punched my partner in the face. But we did bring back her …” What did I call the urchin behind me? Emogene’s lover? Her captor?

“This is the man she was last seen with.” Nick finished for me. “He had Emogene locked up in a room, hogtied, and gagged.”

Jack frowned and then scrutinized Brother Thomas with a withering gaze.

“Is this true?” He asked the man.

Brother Thomas looked like he was staring in the face of evil itself. His skin looked slightly yellow and his lower lip quivered. Then his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell over backward knocking into the plush red sofa before collapsing onto the floor with a pained groan.

Jack walked over to the man’s inert form and felt for a pulse and then pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket and put it to the man’s chest.

He gestured to Nick and nodded at the man’s feet. “Help me get him into my lab. It’s just back through those doors.”

Nick obeyed and grabbed the man’s feet while Jack hoisted the man beneath his shoulders. Jack was short and stocky — I was taller than he was — but he lifted the man up like he was a rag doll. I saw Nick’s eyebrow cock up in interest but he said nothing.

Both men hauled Brother Thomas through the double doors and into clean and well-organized laboratory and put him on a hospital gurney.

Jack set to work straight away and brought the IV hanger over and began to run an IV into the man’s arm.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.

Jack frowned as he sterilized a needle and tied a tourniquet to Brother Thomas’s other arm. “He’s … uh … it looks like he’s pretty dehydrated and malnourished. Some fluids should help. I’m also going to do a quick blood draw to see if he could be sick with something else, an infection perhaps or chem use.”

Something in Jack’s tone rang false to me but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. He operated efficiently and adhered to more sanitary practices than your typical wasteland doctor. He swabbed the man’s arm with alcohol and donned rubber gloves before drawing blood from the man’s arm. He worked as though he had years of medical training, but from where?Something seemed off.

“So … is Emogene your sister?” Nick asked.

“Sadly, yes.” Jack replied. “I’m sorry that she assaulted you, officer. Emogene has always been hard to handle. As they say, you can’t choose your family.”

“No you can’t.” Nick agreed. “Say, those are some pretty remarkable portraits in the living room.”

“Yes, they’re the house’s first inhabitants. This old mansion has been in my family dating back to the mid 1800s.”

Jack unscrewed the vial that was attached to the syringe and stuck it in a test tube holder. He then placed the last dregs of blood from the syringe onto a microscope slide, slid it beneath a microscope, and peered through the lens.

“Hmm…well I’m sad to say that this man is also fighting off an infection which could explain why he's fainted. His white blood count is far too high. I’ll watch over him tonight and then he and I will have a little talk about what he did to Emogene.”

Jack stood up and stripped off his rubber gloves. His black rimmed glasses glinted slightly beneath the fluorescents. He seemed cordial enough but his eyes held a guardedness about them. Just like his assistant, I sensed there was something Jack was hiding and I couldn’t help but wonder how much of Brother Thomas’s ramblings were closer to the truth than we thought.

The man withdrew a large tin and passed it to me. “Here’s the payment for finding Emogene. I hope this is sufficient. I usually have Edward handle the finances.”

The rattle of bottle caps and the tin’s hefty weight told me it was more than the 100 caps that Edward quoted us. Was he paying us off? I wondered.  
  
“If you’ll excuse me,” Jack said as he gestured back towards the living room, “I’m going to look over our patient here before calling it a night. It was nice to meet you both.”

He shook Nick’s hand without flinching and then shook mine as well. As I took his thin, dry hand in mine, I saw a flash of jealousy and sadness pass across his face. I had seen that look on a handful of women before — and it usually was directed at me when I went out with Nate — but on Jack’s face, I felt the weight and sincerity behind it.

We were both all but pushed out the door and into the chilly evening. The door shut and then locked behind us. Nick looked at me.

“How ‘bout we head on back to the Agency and fill Ellie in on the details before turning in. This has turned into the longest day of my life, and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t sleep.”

I nodded and followed Nick back into the alleyways, but my mind wasn’t on Ellie or the Agency. As we walked back to Diamond City, I couldn’t reconcile the fact that a sixty year old woman had a younger brother who looked thirty years her junior. Nor could I shake the eerie suspicion that the portraits of the family founders that hung in the living room were more closely related to Jack than he let on.

Still, the most painful observation I had made that night had nothing to do with Jack or Emogene, but rather, how Jack reminded me so much of Nate.

The wasteland was full of SOS broadcasts made by Pre-War people who were caught unaware by the bombs. Nick and I had resolved a couple of them in our travels together, and each time we did so, I half hoped and half feared I’d hear Nate’s voice on the other end.

So when I set foot in the Cabot House after 200 years, I _felt_ Nate’s presence there. Something in my gut told me that Nate had been there before. It didn’t make sense of course; Nate would’ve never willingly gone into a museum dedicated to the curious and the supernatural unless I begged him to go with me.

In the short time that Nick and I had worked together again, he taught me to never ignore my instincts or my intuition. But how could I when it was telling me my husband, who I presumed was dead for 200 years, was alive and was somehow connected to the Cabot House?

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

“Doctor Pendleton, I need the autopsy report on that John Doe from Saturday’s shootout. Your wife needs it for her prosecution case against Joe Spenellie’s gang.” Mrs. Abledeen, the receptionist, said over the phone. “You know, your wife really shouldn’t be working so hard. You’ve got a baby coming any day now.”

I shook my head at Mrs. Abledeen’s well meaning but unnecessary advice, “You go ahead and tell my wife that yourself. And tell her that I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“Of course Doctor.”

I hung up the phone and removed the plastic medical apron and hung it up on a hook in the small dressing area.

“Miles can you take care of Ms. Banderhousen here. Mike from Anderson and Son’s funeral home will pick her up at three. My wife is waiting upstairs for me.”

“Of course.” He replied. “You tell Nora I say hi.”

“Will do.” I chuckled.

Miles was an endearing if not overly eager young man fresh out of medical school. He could’ve gone on to any of Boston’s hospitals to do his residency, but instead, he chose to work in the morgue as my apprentice. He was still a bit green, but what he lacked in experience he made up for in dedication and loyalty.

I washed my hands and then finger combed my hair into some semblance of order knowing full well Nora would fuss over it like usual. I checked out my reflection in the small hand mirror that was hanging above the sink. Aside for the deepening bags under my eyes on account of the long hours at my job, I figured I looked decent enough to meet my wife for a quick lunch.

I grabbed the manilla folder with the autopsy report from the file cabinet in the records room and then made my way down the narrow hallway towards the elevator.

Several nurses, medical students, and a couple cops got on and off the elevator as it ascended to the ground floor, but I didn’t engage them in conversation. Too often the conversations would skew political and then those conversations would turn to fights. I already spent two years fighting in a war; I didn’t need to spend my free time engaged in another while waiting for the elevator.

“Ground floor.” The cool operator’s voice announced. I walked out with a couple of weary-looking doctors as a flood of people pushed past us to get in.

Nora sat in the waiting room reading a copy of _Love & Life_ with an incredulous expression while holding her gravid stomach with her left hand.

Only last week did she finally cave to wearing maternity pants, but she still hadn’t entertained the idea of going on maternity leave. I was tired of pushing the issue as I understood all too well how anxious she was about leaving her cases with that incompetent junior attorney, but I prayed that she’d eventually cave. It was either that or having Nora go into labor while she was at court.

As I approached her, Nora’s eyes flitted up to mine and I smiled.

“Hi hon.”

She struggled to her feet and winced but masked the discomfort with her winning smile. “Hey babe. How’s it going?”

She kissed me on the cheek, but as she pulled away, I pulled her in and kissed her full on the mouth.

“Nate!” She scolded and slapped my shoulder. “We’re in public.”

I grinned, “And you’re pregnant and we’re married. People are gonna catch on as to how you got in this condition even if I didn’t kiss you.”

“People are gonna talk.” She warned.

“Stop the presses! Call the _Boston Bugle_. I just saw Dr. Pendleton kissing his pregnant wife in public. Oh, think of the children!” I layed the sarcasm on thick until Nora’s grin matched my own.

She sighed and ran her fingers through my hair. A delighted shiver went down my spine and I felt my brain float away for a moment.

“I’m not worried about a scandal.” She whispered in my ear. “I’m worried that if I don’t leave here with you now, I’ll take you on this very floor and _that_ would be the scandal. I’m pregnant and I’m horny. My hormones are driving me nuts, so kissing me once and letting me go back to work stewing in that arousal is beyond cruel.”

“Should we skip lunch then?” I whispered. I prayed to God that she’d say yes.

“No.” She countered. “Because in addition to being constantly horny, I’m also hungry as Hell. You sure you can’t take off early? Maybe I just need some more convincing at home as to why I should start my maternity leave.”

“C’mon Mrs. Pendleton. It seems neither of us are fit to be in public.” I helped her put her jacket on and then pulled my own wool overcoat on. I thanked God that the coattails were long enough to hide my arousal.

As we stepped outside and into the cold Boston winter, I held my wife’s hand tight in my own relishing it its softness and warmth. Then the scene faded and I heard an unintelligible voice yelling at me and shaking me awake.

* * *

**Edward’s POV**

“Dammit Nate. C’mon. Wake up.” I urged.

I found Nate curled up in a fetal position against one of Jack’s laboratory tables. The linoleum was tinted a dark reddish-black from the dried blood and there was so much of it. I pressed my head to Nate’s chest and then cursed at my foolishness. A vampire wouldn’t have a heartbeat. Worryingly, his chest wasn’t moving either which meant he wasn’t breathing and his skin was ashen pale. Well…paler than normal.

I gently lifted one of his eyelids and saw that his brown eyes, not his vampiric white-blue, were rolled back in his head.

“Shit.” I cursed. I lifted Nate’s literally lifeless body onto the laboratory table and ripped open the ruined shirt to search for other injuries. I saw nothing aside for the obvious half-healed gunshot wound in his neck which he had expertly bandaged. Too bad the bandages were now as red as his grey button-down.

I opened the duffle bag that I brought from the Cabot House and grabbed a blood bag from the top of the pile. I ripped off the tube from the top and began squeezing the torn bag slowly into his open mouth.

Blood pooled around his teeth, gums, and tongue, and I figured he would accidentally choke if he did gain consciousness with a mouthful of blood, so I pulled him forward and sat behind him on the table.

“C’mon dammit.” I growled.

I gently massaged the flesh at the base of his jaw and above the gunshot wound hoping I could help the blood get into his system, but the blood I gave him sloshed out of his mouth and hit the stainless steel table with a splash.

“Nate. C’mon.” I pleaded. “Tell me what you need. Help me save you.”

Just then, Nate’s torso convulsed and his eyes jolted open and were now a startling white-blue. His pupils had morphed into cat-like slits and his fangs slid down just far enough for me to see their tips as they poked into his bottom lip.

“E-e-edw…”

“Shhhh. Don’t waste your energy. Do you need more blood? Just shake or nod your head.”

Nate nodded and his eyes closed again. I fed him some more blood from the blood bag until half of it had been consumed and more color was brought back to his face.

“No more.” He wheezed.

“You still look like you need a helluva lot more.” I remarked.

He shook his head. His voice was weak and throaty. “I — It wont help. I — I need to f-f-feed.”

“Look I have an entire duffle bag full of blood here. Feed to your heart’s content but —“

His hand grasped my forearm and I hissed as his claws dug into my radiation-scarred skin. Faint rivulets of blood slid down my mottled flesh and I jerked away.

“A life f—for a life.” He murmured.

“What?”

“I ha-have to feed off a live person.” He replied.

“Okay. Just let me go get one of Maria’s team. I’m sure there’s a freak or two in their midst who likes their men a little on the bite-y side.” I was making a joke hoping that some levity would help the situation seem less tense, but I don’t think it helped.

“I will kill them.” He whispered. “I wont be able to stop.”

“I’ll stop you before you go too far.” I insisted.

Nate shook his head and I saw the pain clearly written across his face. In our decade together, I saw how the weight of his past accidents and sins weighed on him. When he thought nobody else was looking, Nate sat in his jail cell or worked with Jack while the entire weight of the world sat on his shoulders.

“Who should I bring to you?” I asked seriously.

“No one.” He gasped.

“Then you’ll die!”

He nodded twice and his head sank into the crook of my elbow as his eyes shut once again.

I shook him — which considering he was dealing with a neck injury wasn’t the smartest decision on my part — and he hissed from the pain.

“I’m not gonna let you die Nate.” I said firmly but he didn’t respond.

I set him back on the laboratory table and ran out of the lab and slid my ID card into the elevator. The ride to the first floor seemed to take an eternity and by the time the broken speaker announced “zzzz—ound Floor” I pushed through the opening doors and ran outside.

A rad storm was approaching. The yellowing clouds and the far off lightning briefly illuminated the bare trees in the courtyard before throwing everything into a green-yellow darkness.

Maria, the head of security, had her barracks in the south-west part of the property. She ran a tight ship and refused to let any of her guards take chems while they worked for her. Her soldiers were loyal to her and none of them would do what I’d ask without her prior approval.

I knocked twice on the door to the barracks and waited. After five minutes of silence, I knocked again.

“Maria it’s Edward. I need to speak with ya.” I yelled.

I heard the door unlatch and a disgruntled and dark face peered back at me.

“What the hell d’you want Deegan? I start my shift in three hours. If you need something, go see Bosco, Kenny, or Niko about it.”

“I have an odd request and I wanted to clear it with you first.” I said. “Jack is doin’ an experiment and he needs blood, fresh blood, and he needs the donor to be as radiation free as possible, free of chems, and otherwise healthy. Do you have anyone in mind? Jack’ll pay twice the normal rate.

Her eyes narrowed, “What the fuck kinda experiment is Jack doing that he can’t use the millions of other blood samples that are in an Old World medical facility?”

I shrugged. “Jack explained it to me but I won’t even claim I understood the half of it. All I know is that the donor needs to be healthy and he needs fresh blood.”

“And he’s willing to pay 5,000 caps for this?” Maria clarified. The skepticism in her voice intensified.

“You know he’s good for it.” I said. “Have I ever shorted you on a payment before?”

She chewed her lip. “Kick 1,000 of the caps to me and I’ll give you two donors. One’s a runaway fresh from Finch Farm and the other claims to be from somewhere up near Salem. Neither have marks on their arms to indicate chem use, and they’re the strongest recruits I can spare. The rest of my team is far too hardened to be of use, trust me.”

“How old are the kids?”

“The Hell if I know. They’re runaways. They both told me they were eighteen.” She let out a sickening cough and then spat on the ground near my boots. “One of them sounds like he’s just old enough to start growing hair on his sack and the other…well…he’s as dumb as he is strong so I don’t know.”

“And I can have them for … say twenty-four hours or so?”

She cackled, “You can have them as long as you want if you give me a cut of the money. They’re nothing but a nuisance for me until I can get them trained up right. They’re in the barracks next door. The jailbait’s name is Phin and the dumb ox’s name is Rock.”

“Rock?” I repeated.

Maria shrugged. “That’s one of the few words he could say when he wandered in here. He does what he’s told, he just isn’t articulate.”

I nodded and moved out of the door frame so Maria could shut it. “I’ll pay you your money after Jack gets what he needs.”

“I trust ya Deegan. You know where to find me. Just don’t mention my finder’s fee to the boys, okay? I got kids to think about. They don’t…at least as far as I know.”

I nodded and walked around the small brick building and knocked on the door. “Phin? Brock? Get out here. I got a job for you.”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Nate’s POV**

_“Your skin feels so warm my pet. I trust your hunt went well?”_

_My sire ran his hands across my forearms and up beneath the dirty but intact Boston Red Sox t-shirt I had scavenged off my victim._

_I sighed and took a step towards him, wanting his touch elsewhere on my body. I couldn’t tell if the thrall was making me feel this way or if it was how I truly felt, but at that point I didn’t care._

_“Come to bed.” My sire murmured. His hazel eyes shined in the low light like a cat’s._

_I pulled off my shirt and threw the soiled garment onto the cracked linoleum floor of our bunker. My pants soon followed and I walked towards the bed completely naked._

_My sire pulled back the stitched together rags that we were using as a makeshift blanket and I settled beneath them._

_The mattress pricked at my sensitive, flushed skin and it sent a pleasurable shiver through my body. I was always extra sensitive after I had fed and the sheer sensation of fabric on my skin edged me close to being fully aroused._

_I felt my master’s weight next to me, and I already felt at peace._

_“Tell me about your hunt, pet.” He said in a voice that was just shy of a command. “Let me live vicariously through you.”_

_I settled on my back and propped an arm beneath my head. “You know Concord, the city to the far northwest of here?”_

_“Yes.” He replied, nuzzling into my chest and nipping lightly at the skin just below my armpit. “Although I haven’t hunted in that city in close to half a century now. What made you go so far away from the bunker?”_

_I grimaced at his tone, “I got carried away I suppose. The night air felt amazing and I just kept running until I tired of it. By the time I had realized what happened, I found myself standing outside Concord. ”_

_My master scrutinized me with a cold gaze. His face was beginning to show the monster beneath the man. His hazel eyes had taken on a blue hue and his fangs were starting to protrude from his full lips. “And it had nothing to do with your old home being a short walk to the North?”_

_“No!” I insisted. I sat up on my elbows and looked at him. “I wouldn’t disobey your orders.”_

_Panic flooded through me. I was telling the truth. Ever since I had been turned, I put Sanctuary Hills out of my mind. The place was probably in shambles; my neighbors were probably dead or worse.  My wife, my infant son...well putting them out of my mind was the only way I could come to terms that I'd never see them again._

_I felt a sharp pain in the front of my skull as my master carelessly sifted through my thoughts and memories with the help of the thrall. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out and after two agonizing minutes, the pain finally stopped._

_“My apologies, pet.” He murmured and brushed away the hair that had fallen into my face. He kissed my forehead. “You were telling me the truth. You didn’t disobey my orders.”_

_I shivered in pain and rolled away from him, letting my displeasure seep into the thrall, and faced the concrete bunker wall. Any sort of affinity or affection I had felt for him ten minutes ago had cooled into bitter hatred again._

_“Hey, hey now.” He cooed and pulled me into him so my back was against his chest. “I’m sorry I caused you pain. You’ve been very good recently, but I still need to hold you accountable. If I begin to take you at your word, you’ll start betraying my trust and I will not lose you. I can’t. You’re mine, Nathan.”_

_I let out a low, breathy shudder. His claim over me washed through my body like a stiff whisky. Half a century ago, I’d shirk away at the thought that I could be owned by anyone, let alone a monster like this, but now my heart soared at the concept. I was owned. I was wanted. I was loved._

_My sire’s arm caressed across my bare hip and down my thigh until he ran his fingers across my erection. His fingers encircled my shaft and he stroked me in slow, rhythmic motions. My hips bucked into his hand on their own accord and I shuddered in pleasure._

_His lips kissed my shoulder and I felt his own arousal rubbing across the top of my ass._

_“May I make it up to you?” My sire asked. He rarely apologized and never asked for my consent._

_“Yes, please.” I panted. “Please master.”_

_My sire rolled me onto my stomach and lightly ran his sharpened nails down the length of my back. Pebbles of blood leaked out like beads of sweat and he licked them up like they were candy._

_I tucked my knees beneath me and raised up my ass submitting myself before him. He rewarded me with a gentle kiss at the base of my spine and then he massaged my ass, moving and spreading my flesh so the night air could tease at my most private spots._

_He growled in pleasure and swiped his tongue along my testicles, up my perineum, and then lavished his attention on my anus. He repeated the motion several times until it felt like my breath would never enter my lungs again. I wanted to say something but I didn’t know if I wanted him to stop or to never stop. The sensations crackling through my body were completely alien to me and yet oh so right._

_I moved my hand down to my cock to add another layer of pleasure to the bliss I was experiencing but my master’s hand came down across my ass with a loud crack._

_“You do not have permission to touch yourself.” He said sharply and my hand retreated back to the metal bed frame._

_“I’m sorry.” I gasped. “Please don’t stop. Oh…God.”_

_My master chuckled. “This is my reward to you Nathan. I reward loyalty and you were a loyal pet today. I’m proud of you.”_

_I smiled. God, I hadn’t smiled in years and I felt the muscles in my face ache from disuse._

_“Roll over, pet.” My sire commanded. “I want to see the gratitude on your face as I fuck you.”_

I jolted awake. I thrashed my arms and legs out as though I could push that creature’s body off of me, but I felt something rip out of my arm and then crash to the floor.

The scent of fresh blood hit my nose and I rolled off the table, ripping the blood bag from the IV hanger, and tore through the surgical plastic. I was so lost in the bloodlust that I didn’t realize that I was stroking myself over my pants until it was too late. I cried out as my cock pulsed once and then twice, then all my senses hyper focused on the moment of orgasm as I ejaculated, soiling my pants even more than they already were.

I collapsed onto my side and panted on the floor like a fish out of water. The blood I had just consumed rushed to my extremities and my hands and feet tingled unpleasantly. It felt as though all four of my limbs had fallen asleep, but the pinprick and tickling sensation brought on by the increased blood flow did nothing to dampen my arousal, in fact in only added to it.

“Nate, I heard a commotion. What happened?”

I opened one eye and saw Edward through the glass observation window looking on in concern. I’m sure I looked like a mess. I hadn’t bathed or showered in what felt like days, I was covered in blood, and now semen, and the bloodlust was gnawing at my throat.

“It’s okay.” I called out shakily. “I — I — I’m fine.”

The hydraulic lab door open and I heard Edward’s heavy footsteps approach me. His hands slipped beneath my armpits and he hauled me off the floor and to my feet. The scream that came out of my mouth could’ve been mistaken for a highly eroticized moan, but thankfully Edward kept his comments to himself.

“Up ya get. That’s it.” He growled. I swayed and trembled like a newborn deer but I managed to remain upright.

When he released me, I held onto the gurney and shook my head to try and clear away all of these conflicting sensations.

“What happened Nate? Did the blood not work?”

At the mention of blood, the hunger overwhelmed me again. I pushed past him and grabbed two more blood bags off the table and bit into them. My head swam at the sensation and I collapsed back to my knees. The blood was thick, warm, and fresh.

“God. Where did you get this?” I growled.

“A couple of Maria’s boys donated blood.” Edward replied. “Jack showed me how to test blood to check the type and to make sure it was clean, but those four bags were all I could manage without harming them. Is it okay?”

“Yes. Thank you.” I replied in a choked voice.

Normally I’d feel extremely self conscious that Edward was watching me feed, but I was so hungry and still so weak that him being grossed out, or turned on, was the last thing on my mind.

My hands trembled while clutching the blood bag. The blood was still lukewarm, still fresh, still vital, and I closed my eyes and tried to imagine drinking it from the source.

_Having fun, pet?_

I jumped and threw the blood bag from me. Globs of dark red splashed across the checkered linoleum floor like a ballistic blast pattern.

“Nate…” Edward started but I pushed myself against the lab table and curled my knees up to my chest.

_Are you thinking about me as you feed? Remember how good it felt when I stroked you as you drained the life from someone._

An image, or rather a memory, forced its way into my mind of me drinking from a man we caught outside of Quincy. As I slaked my thirst, the creature molested me.  Disgust and shame burned through my skin.

“No.” I sobbed. The thrall, intangible force that tethered me to that creature that I had spent so long trying to break, was becoming more solid.

“Nate what’s wrong?” Edward asked. His large, rough hands grabbed my shoulders but I skittered out of reach looking more like an insect than a human being.

“Don’t touch me.” I hissed, fangs bared to their fullest extent. I felt the change take me immediately and I knew that my face looked akin to a demon’s. My dark hair was filthy and matted from blood and sweat, but I didn’t care anymore. This was who I was. I was an animal backed into a corner without a chance for escape.

_Don’t be angry with him. He didn’t know that those deliciously innocent boys he paid had run into me a day earlier._

“What did you do to them?” I snarled aloud to the voice in my head.

“I didn’t do anything to them!” Edward exclaimed. “Nate please talk to me.”

I could hear the smirk in the creature’s voice. _You know what I did._

And he was right. The only way the thrall could’ve gotten stronger was if I had consumed some of my sire’s blood again. No matter how much I fasted or bloodlet, there would always be a drop of my sire’s blood in my veins; that was what connected sire and progeny together, but consuming his blood was the quickest way to establish the iron clad connection we once shared.

“You tainted their blood.” I wheezed aloud.

“What!?” Edward growled and then his eyes widened when he realized what he had unintentionally done.

 _Your little game is up. I demand that you come home now._  

His order was powerful enough that I actually got to my feet and walked a couple of steps towards the door.

“No.” I growled. It took every ounce of self-control in my body to resist. “No. I’m not coming back to you.”

My answer clearly angered the creature. Somewhere amid the thrall, he flipped a switch and electric pain crackled through my nerves; it felt as though my central nervous system was shutting down.

I collapsed to the ground, my eyes rolled in the back of my skull, and my body spasmed painfully. Colors and light swirled beneath my eyelids and my stomach churned up the blood I had consumed until I forcefully expelled it all over myself.

Edward’s panicked yelling cut through the pain but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I felt myself floating but I didn’t understand why. Rain pelted my face and hands prodded me everywhere. For a horrifying moment, I thought that I had somehow made it out of Parsons and back into the creature’s embrace.

But the monster didn’t have rough, mottled hands and a gentle touch. Nor did the monster ever cry.

* * *

**Jack’s POV**

“Jack … c … i ….” The HAM radio crackled from the living room. “Jack! Do you c…… …er?”

I slipped on my house shoes and pulled on my robe before limping down the staircase to answer Edward.

“Hello?” I called into the microphone. “Edward can you hear me?”

More garbled static came over the airwaves and then Edward’s panicked voice faded in loud and clear.

“Jack? Jack!”

“I can hear you Edward.” I said. “What’s going on?”

Truthfully there would only be one reason for Edward to sound so panicked and my stomach felt like a rock had settled in permanently settled in it.

“It’s Nate. He — God I’m such a fucking idiot — He …” Edward coughed roughly and then sniffed. My blood ran cold. Edward was crying.

“Edward talk to me.” I pleaded. “Is Nate okay? Is he alive?”

“Yes but … dammit Jack. I — I royally fucked up here.”

“Well what happened?”

“I paid Maria for some young recruits who donated a couple pints of their blood. Everything looked good on my end. They had minimal radiation for being a couple of wastelanders and both were chem free. I gave them to Nate but that —“ He choked on his words, “— that fucking creature somehow got to them first and fed them his blood. He tainted the donation and …”

Edward trailed off and I heard a series of things crash to the floor and shatter. My heart seized at the implication.

“Is Nate still there? Is he alive Edward?”

“Y-yes.” He panted. “I have him locked in the padded room so he doesn’t unintentionally … or intentionally … hurt himself. He’s been vamped out for the past six hours now. He wont let me near him and I don’t fucking blame him. The thrall is the strongest I’ve seen since he turned up on our doorstep with the skin on his back flayed open.”

I shuddered at the memory. It had taken me four hours of surgery to stitch him back together while Edward stood guard in case he attacked me. In addition to the torture, Nate’s face was battered, his nose broken in three places, and he had been raped.

“Dammit Jack, I — I’ve never screwed up this badly before. I —“ Edward sighed. I had never heard him sound so defeated before.

“It’s not your fault Edward. You didn’t know the blood was tainted. There are no blood tests in the world that screen for fucking vampire blood.” I pinched the bridge of my nose beneath my glasses.

“Jack I don’t feel comfortable with you being there alone.” Edward said. “The creature clearly knows where Nate is and knows who we are, so he probably knows where you live as well.”

“He can’t come in without my permission, remember?”

“And you don’t think he can’t coerce it from you. Nate told us the sick things that bastard would do with his victims before killing them. Is the front door at least locked?”

I glanced at the panel near the entryway and saw the telltale red light which indicated that the defenses were activated.

“Yes, everything is locked. Look, just get some sleep. I’ll leave as soon as it’s daylight. Even with my healing injury, I’ll still make it back up to Parsons before sunset. Then we’ll sit down and figure something out. It will be alright.”

Edward sighed, “Fine. But do a sweep of the house before you go back to bed. I have several guns stashed in my safe in the basement. Take the .44 pistol. It’s small but packs a helluva punch.”

“I’ll be fine.” I said. “Just watch over Nate, okay?”

“I will.” He promised and then he sighed, “I love you Jack.”

“I love you too.”

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

“Goodnight Nora.” Ellie replied as she grabbed her purse from the coat rack that hung in the corner of the office. “Get some sleep, will ya? You look dead on your feet.”

“You know me El, I don’t make promises I can’t keep.” I replied.

She smiled and shook her head. “Say goodnight to Nick for me, will ya? I’d wait for him to get back from Arturo’s but … I have a date.”

“Oh really? Who with?”

Her small smile took on an enigmatic quality. “I’ll tell you if the date goes well.”

“Fair enough.” I remarked. “Then in your case, I hope the date goes very well. You deserve a bit of a break.”

She giggled, “Goodnight Nora.”

The bell above the door chimed once Ellie left and I was left alone with my thoughts. I didn’t mind being alone; I certainly had enough to think about, but ever since I started working as Nick’s partner, I valued a second mind to bounce ideas off of.

I stood up and turned on the nearby radio to provide some background noise as I tried to sort out my thoughts.

Travis’s stuttering voice came over the airwaves broadcasting the occasional commercial before making a lame joke or vaguely sexual pun about the upcoming song. I turned the volume down to a quiet hum, reclined back in a plush yellow armchair, and started sifting through my thoughts.

And the idea that was currently weighing on my mind was what Brother Thomas had said about Emogene. She’s not human. I could’ve brushed off his comment as the weak insults from a spurned lover, but then again, the evidence was pointing more and more towards Brother Thomas’s theory.

When Nick and I rescued Emogene, she made mention of a ‘payment’ that her brother owed her, and after confronting Brother Thomas, he made mention that although Emogene didn’t use chems, she did inject something while they were together which allegedly gave her this super-strength.

Then there was her brother who looked at least 30 years her junior despite being called her “older” brother. While there were many things in the wasteland that could prematurely age a person, Nora couldn’t think of anything that would add 30 years to someone’s life.

And then there was that whole thing with Brother Thomas fainting. I wasn’t a doctor, but his fainting seemed more of a result of extreme fear or stress rather than the result of an illness. The man damn near talked our ears off as we escorted him to the Cabot House and showed no sign of illness then.

Then there was the way that Jack looked at me. He was an attractive man, I’d give him that, and I guess my type tended to run more along the nerdy track than I cared to admit, but he looked at me without an ounce of lust in his eyes. He looked at me like I was somehow a threat to him. But how? Was he afraid that I’d uncover his family’s secret or was it something more?

Just then the bell above the door rang.

“Nora, you here?” Nick called out.

“Yep, I’m still here.”

Nick rounded the corner and shrugged off his long, tattered overcoat and hung it on the coat rack. I know that Gen-2 synths didn’t feel heat or cold like other synths did, but it still amazed me that Nick insisted that he wear that heavy trench coat everywhere he went. The last time I asked him about it, he just replied that “clothes make the man” and left it at that.

Nick sighed and grabbed a bottle of whisky and two chipped lowball glasses from the liquor cabinet in the back room and set both on his desk.

“How was your appointment with Arturo?” I asked and accepted the glass of amber liquid that he handed me.

“Well, he laughed damn near close to five minutes when I told him a brahmin kicked me in the head.” Nick grumbled. “I had half the mind to tell him the truth but I didn’t know which would be worse. All in all though, he fixed me up alright. He said there shouldn’t be any permanent structural damage.”

“That’s good!”

Nick nodded and took a sip from his own glass. “So have we got any leads on the Pembroke case?”

I pursed my lips and took a guilty sip of whisky. The alcohol burned as it went down and pulled some color to my cheeks.

“What do I even pay you for?” Nick mock chided.

“You don’t pay me.” I replied. “I’m doing this for free.”

Nick smirked. His yellow eyes held a heat in them that made my blood race. “So what have you been working on?”

I sat up a little straighter in the yellow armchair and pulled a yellow legal pad off Ellie’s desk which contained my notes.

“I’ve been thinking about this whole Cabot family thing.” I said. “You know there’s no way that Emogene Cabot, a woman in her sixties at the very least, could feasibly do the things she did.”

Nick sat down at his own desk. To his credit, he didn’t dismiss me off hand. Nick never did, no matter how wrong or off track my theories became. “What are your theories?”

“Well I ranked them in order of most likely to least likely.” I said. “At the top of the list we have chem use of some kind.”

Nick nodded. “Buffout and Psycho are known to enhance a person’s strength. And Psycho would make someone more likely to be aggressive and fly off the handle. But then again, I … well the real Nick … saw a lot of Buffout and Psycho addicts in his time and Emogene didn’t display any of the symptoms of withdrawal, nor did she look strung out.”

“My next theory is that Emogene’s a veteran raider who use to fight down at the Combat Zone. Brother Thomas was nothing more than a glorified raider himself, and you know what they say about birds of a feather?”

“She wasn’t sporting that many scars though.” Nick added. “Which means she’s either really, really good or that this theory is dead in the water.”

I sighed and took another drink. The whisky buzzed in my brain giving me the light headed feeling that told me I was on a slippery slope towards drunksville. I was such a lightweight, a fact which Nate would tease me about.

“Well these next theories are a little more … out there.”

Nick nodded. “I’m all ears.”

“My third theory is that Emogene and her brother have some sort of Dorian Gray thing going on.”

“As in the Oscar Wilde novel?”

“The very same.” I agreed. “You saw the portraits hanging in their house. Both portraits looked remarkably similar to them. Maybe their youth is tied up in those portraits.”

“It wouldn’t explain why Emogene is thirty years older if both portraits were present in the house.” Nick countered.

“Maybe her brother made a faustian bargain and sold his soul to the Devil for beauty like Dorian did.”

“Well by that logic, those portraits should reflect their true age but they don’t. They look like your typical oil paintings that rich people with too much money to burn commission a poor sap to create for posterity’s sake.”

I bobbled my head side to side as I considered his rebuttal. “Okay, fine. Well my last theory is a doozy.”

“I can’t wait to hear it.” He smiled.

“Oh don’t patronize me.” I groused. I poured a little more whisky in my tumbler and topped Nick’s off as well.

“I’m serious!” He exclaimed. “You’ve always had a great imagination. Sure, some of your theories might be unconventional, but I’d take one woman with an imagination over five women without one.”

“You couldn’t handle five women.” I shot back.

“Very true.” He saluted me with his glass. “I can barely handle you.”

A heated silence fell over us and I felt my cheeks and neck burn at the frankness of his comment. Nick cleared his throat and took a sudden interest at an imaginary object floating in the ceiling.

“So … uh … what’s your fourth theory, doll?”

I exhaled slowly. “This is going to sound ridiculous.”

“Go on.” Nick urged.

“Well…my fourth theory is that they’re vampires.”

Nick coughed and spluttered as whisky literally went down the wrong tube. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped at the dregs of whisky that he spit over his desk.

“Vampires?” He repeated with slight static in his voice.

“Hear me out.” I said. “I really only think that Jack fits that theory. I mean, it would explain the age difference between him and his ‘younger’ sister. It would explain why Brother Thomas reacted the way he did, especially considering his claim that the Cabots were inhuman.”

“But Jack took some of that sleezebag’s blood and didn’t seem to be bothered by it.” Nick pointed out.

I shrugged, “Maybe he’s use to blood … desensitized by it. He did say that his family had owned the house since the mid-1800s. Well maybe he knows that because he was alive to inherit it from his family during that time period. It would also explain why he has a ghoul as a bodyguard. Maybe Jack can’t or doesn’t want to socialize with humans, so he sends Edward as an envoy in his place.”

Nick was silent for a while and rubbed his forehead. His internal fans whirled idly as he absorbed what I had said.

I finished my glass and tipped the dead soldier upside down. As I looked at my own neat handwriting, the more I began to see the holes in my theory.

“Look Nick, it’s just a stupid theory.” I said but he shook his head.

He looked at me with a piercing expression. “I think it’s a valid theory.”

“But vampires don’t exist!” I exclaimed. My head spun from the whisky and how quickly the tables had turned.

“Vampires sort of exist.” Nick clarified. “At least there are rumors.”

“What sorts of rumors?”

Nick sighed, “Out in the Capital Wasteland, there was talk of this small settlement that got ravaged by a group of people. The next person who came across the town discovered that the inhabitants who were left alive had gone a bit insane in their fear while the others looked like they had been torn open and had their blood consumed.”

“You’re pulling my leg.” I said.

Nick shook his head, “I wish I was, doll. Granted I heard this rumor secondhand, but it came from someone who’s traveled to the Capital Wasteland himself. Everyone out there knew to steer clear of that settlement and the metro tunnels that surrounded it.”

“So then why would Edward hire us to recover a vampire’s sister?” I asked.

“Now there’s the million dollar question. Why indeed.”

I thought back to the rumors that Nick told me about Parsons when we were outside the Dugout. He said there had been reports of missing people and screams coming from the allegedly abandoned asylum for the past ten years.

“You don’t think there are more vampires in the Commonwealth do you?”

“And that they’re using Jack Cabot’s asylum as a nest of sorts?” Nick finished for me.

My eyes grew wide as the pieces began to fall into place. “We’d have to ask Ellie to pull all missing persons cases in that area over the past ten years and then follow up with some of the people.”

“It could take some time.” Nick reminded me, but I saw that he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

“And it would be dangerous.” I reminded him.

“I’ve been looking for more jobs that would get the coolant pumping.”

“We’d be traveling up to Salem. I haven’t been up that way since I was a kid.”

“It’s beautiful country up there if you like rugged ravines, mirelurks everywhere you step, and the occasional deathclaw.” Nick said wryly.

“I do have a couple paying jobs that way that I can take care of while we’re up there.” I remarked.

“Killing two birds with one stone is always nice.”

Nick pulled me to my feet and I laced my fingers with his.

“This is crazy.” I chuckled.

“It is.” He agreed. “But you know this would be on our minds until we did something about it.”

Another wave of silence overtook us. Ever since I emerged from the Vault, I wandered the wastes aimlessly hoping I could fill the holes in my heart made by my son’s kidnapping and my husband’s disappearance. Finding Nick was the first step in healing those wounds, although he’d never know it. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t find Nick Valentine attractive — both the Pre-War and his synth counterpart — but I was in love with Nate and Nick had Jenny. Now with both of our significant others dead, it seemed only natural that we’d be thrown together to make sense of the pieces.

Nick cleared his throat and the magic that lingered between us was broken. We let go of each others hands just as the Ella Fitzgerald’s “Undecided” ended.

“Now comin’ at you almost-live from Diamond City, I’m your host Travis “Lonely” Miles — heh — and this … is Diamond City Radio”

For the sixth time that day, the brassy intro of Conee Allen’s “Rocket 69” started and we both groaned.

“Someone’s gotta get that kid laid.” I remarked before switching off the radio.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: There's some graphic details of torture and suicidal thoughts ahead.

**Chapter 8**

Nora’s POV

Ellie dropped a stack of manila file folders onto Nick’s desk. Their weight hit the old oak desk with a substantial plop and a plume of dust rose up above our heads.

“These were all of the missing persons files I could find that fit the span of time you were looking in.” Ellie replied. “Isn’t 3 years a helluva big window for one missing person’s case?”

“It is but we’ll manage anyway. Thanks El.” Nick replied.

We couldn’t tell Ellie the real reason why we were sifting through three years worth of paperwork, she would’ve laughed us out of the agency, so Nick placated her by mentioning that it was somehow related to my son’s disappearance.

I felt bad that we had to resort to that excuse (I hadn’t yet mustered the means, or the courage, to find this Brian Virgil in the Glowing Sea), but feeding Ellie that excuse meant she’d give us the appropriate space out of professional discretion.

“So how about we sift through the files and make a pile for missing persons cases that were in the Malden or Salem area and another involving murders where the vic’s body was mutilated or their throats were ripped apart.” Nick suggested.

I agreed, only if because I didn’t have a better plan, and we got started with the mountain of paperwork.

As the morning bled into the afternoon, Ellie dutifully came by and took away files that were placed in the ‘no’ pile. We had a lot of ‘maybes’ which required that we go over the details with a finer-toothed comb, but nothing struck out as a firm ‘yes.’

“Can’t you recall anything just from memory?” I grumbled after another hour of sitting. My back was aching and I was starting to get hungry.

“I’ve been around for a long time, doll. Eventually details just seem to blur together even more than they already do.”

“Well if you’d write things down, maybe you’d remember then.” Ellie called out from her desk.

“Then I’d put you out of a job.” Nick fired back easily.

“Nora, why are men so full of excuses?” Ellie asked me with a wink.

By mid afternoon, I insisted we take a break if only so I could stretch my legs, use the facilities, and grab a late lunch from Power Noodles.

Nick accompanied me on the walk to the marketplace which secretly thrilled me. As the weeks passed by, I found myself falling into this new, unsettling life in the wasteland. I felt like I was plucked out of one life and dropped into another with no warning and no rulebook, and Nick was the one person who helped me get my bearings. I could honestly say that I’d be lost without him.

“Hey. You got a sec’?” Nick asked as we were walking back to the agency.

I slowed my pace and sipped the warm broth from the Styrofoam cup that Takahashi had dispensed.

“Sure. What’s up?”

Nick sighed. His eyes shifted nervously and he opened his mouth a couple times as though he was struggling to find the right words. “I — uh — sorry if this isn’t the right time for this conversation, but all of this digging in the recent past got me thinking. You once told me that your husband never made it into the vault with you.”

I nodded. “He never came home after work. He called me from a pay phone at a quarter to seven and said a protest held him up and that he was catching the last train out of the city … but he never made it home.”

My voice fell hollow as I recounted the information once again and my chest clenched up from the grief that swept over me so suddenly until I forced those thoughts out of my mind.

“Why are you asking me about this?”

Nick cleared his throat and looked slightly ashamed. “I — I think it’s possible that I was the last person he talked with. I — well you know, Old Nick, pulled him out of the crowd that was starting to mob up. Nick was on his way to the CIT for that brain scan that gave you yours truly and we talked.”

“What did you talk about?” I tried to sound casual but failed miserably.

Nick saw the pain in my eyes and looked at his feet in shame, “Dammit Nora. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m sorry I upset you, doll. I can’t remember anything about my cases from three years ago but I can remember every exact detail of Old Nick’s life.”

“What did you both talk about Nick.” I repeated. I wanted to grab him and shake the answer out. “Tell me.”

He sighed, “It was mostly small talk I suppose. I was still raw after what happened to Jenny so my mind was a bit muddled. We talked about the protests and he asked me how I was doing since Jenny had died. We talked about you. Nate told me that you missed the drama of the court room and that you were itching to get back to work because you didn’t trust that shmuck Romerez to handle your cases with the same amount of finesse and compassion.”

“Romerez was such a dipshit.” I chuckled as tears dripped off my cheeks and landed in my broth.

Nick’s firm thumb brushed the newly forming tears away from my eyes. The touch was so intimate that I had to suppress a sigh.

“Nate also told me that he bought you that Mister Handy to help you around the house. And he invited me over for dinner. He damn near insisted that I try your lasagna and fill you in on the City Hall gossip. I often wonder what would’ve happened if I took him up on his offer. Maybe he’d be alive now.”

“But then you wouldn’t be.” I countered and wiped at my face with my vault suit sleeve. “You would’ve never been upgraded to your spiffy synth alter ego.”

“But —“

I pressed my finger to his synthetic lips to stop him. “But nothing. We’re both still mourning people, but never once think that I regret how events turned out for you or for me. These were the hands we were dealt and we just gotta make our way knowing that neither of us were dealt a full deck.”

Before I pulled my finger away from his mouth, I ran my skin alongside his broken jaw and cupped the tattered skin and frayed electronic webbing in his cheek. He leaned into my touch and I closed my eyes and tried to imagine feeling the Old Nick’s ever-present five o’clock shadow beneath my hand.

When I finally pulled my hand away, Nick looked up and I saw clear desire in his eyes. He was staring at me with the same kind of look that I would sometimes catch from him when we crossed paths on our way to and from courtrooms. Now without nothing holding either of us back, I felt my heart nearly pound out of my throat.

“I’m sorry if I upset you.” He said softly.

“It’s alright. I just hope that he didn’t suffer.” I wiped away at a few more tears and then grinned a little. “You know, sometimes I dream that he’ll walk into Diamond City as a ghoul.”

Nick didn’t inform me of the cold facts; after all, I already knew that ghouls weren’t allowed in Diamond City and the likelihood of him being a sane ghoul was slim to none. The truth of the matter was Nate could very well be out there, tortured and deranged by radiation and feasting mindlessly on human flesh as a feral ghoul.

I shook the thoughts from my head and followed Nick back to the agency. Our fingers accidentally scraped against each other a couple of times as we walked side-by-side. His silicone skin felt feverish each and every time he brushed across my knuckles and I fought the desire to clench my hand just enough to catch his fingers in mine.

As we turned the corner that led back to Valentine’s Detective Agency, Nick cleared his throat and stuffed both hands into his pockets.

“C’mon doll. Let’s get back to work.”

* * *

**Edward’s POV**

My head throbbed from the booze and from the lack of sleep as I kept vigil by Nate’s bedside. I dunno why I thought drinking booze was a good idea, but it did help keep my own guilt at bay just long enough for me to save Nate from himself.

After he vomited blood all over the floor, I took him into the locker room to clean him up. Only one of the shower heads worked and it only dispensed freezing cold, irradiated water which could kill him if he was exposed to it for too long. So the next course of action was to strip him and give him a sponge bath with purified water.

The fly in the ointment of that plan was that Nate’s sire tried to get him to disembowel himself at least every hour. I ain’t proud but I ended up strapping Nate to a wooden frame that the warden once used for corporal punishment just so Nate couldn’t hurt himself or me.

As soon as I got Nate suitably cleaned up, his sire would do something through the thrall which would start the entire process over again. Frequently he’d subject Nate to just enough pain that something internal would rupture and he’d start bleeding from his ears and nose. Once he somehow got Nate to break free of his bindings just so he could make the kid slice himself across his chest with his claws. I took a gash of my own to the face when I worked to restrain him once again.

My wounds would heal with time, and maybe a bit of radiation, but Nate was so blood deprived that his wounds stopped bleeding but remained open to possible irritants and contaminants. After three or four hours, Nate had given up. Aside for the occasional whimper or feeble protest, he had succumb to the physical trauma and hung off the t-frame like the old oil paintings of Christ’s crucifixion.  
  
“Hang in there Nate.” I murmured. He must’ve heard me because I heard my name whispered like a breath on the wind.

“E—Edward.” He breathed.

His dark brown, unkempt hair hung in his face obscuring the face of the monster that he so desperately hated to reveal.

I opened the cell door and went to him. “I’m here Nate.”

He opened his eyes, those ice blue predatory eyes that were both haunting and alluring, and lifted his head up just high enough to look at me.

“Kill me.” He sobbed quietly. “Please. I can’t take this.”

Long ago, he instructed both Jack and I on how to identify a vampire and how to kill one. He gave me this knowledge with the understanding that someday I might have to use it for self defense to protect myself. I never imagined that Nate would beg me to actually kill him.

My rough hand pushed back his hair. His eyes were partially sunken into his skull and his nostrils flared as though he could smell the very atoms in my radiation scarred cells.

“You gotta hang in there for just a bit longer. Jack’s coming back soon.” I said. My large hand traveled through his matted hair and down to his cheek. “Just a bit longer, okay?”

The look he gave me in return spoke volumes. That was the hollow, resigned look of a prisoner of war who knew deep down that help would never arrive. And as long as the thrall connected him to that sadistic monster, Nate was a prisoner in his own body.

Sunrise would be in a couple of hours and I prayed that Jack could make it here in time. I needed him. I needed his guidance, his medical knowledge, and his confidence in me to see me through. I might’ve failed Nate, but I refused to fail Jack by letting Nate die.

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

_You use to have fun with me Nathan. Remember how it felt to hunt together? Remember the feeling of walking through this wasteland knowing that you are its apex predator?_

“C’mon Nate. You gotta drink a little of this. It’s the stock from your room. I promise this stuff hasn’t been tainted.” Edward interrupted my sire’s goading.

Thin plastic medical tubing was forced between my chapped and dry lips and Edward squeezed blood up through the tube and into my mouth. The liquid that I swallowed was chalky and thick, completely unpalatable, and I gagged.

 _200 year old blood just doesn’t keep as well as the fresh stuff._ My sire mused with unconcealed glee. _Do you remember your first taste of child’s blood, and how fresh and alive it felt as her blood filled your mouth._

“No…” I moaned aloud but my sire forced the memory into my mind anyway.

The child, no more than nine or ten years old, clutched tightly to her mother who had died of a blood infection. I almost overlooked her because she stank of death and disease and was hypothermic. But when I heard that faint pulse and saw the life that still remained in her emaciated body, I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t stop.

“No more. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I sobbed as I remembered how the little girl’s graceful and impossibly thin hand slid off my arm as she died.

 _Do you really think a monster like you deserves forgiveness?_ My sire sneered.

“No. I don’t.” I whimpered.

_Then you should end it. End your miserable life. I’ll give you the strength you need. You were such a disappointment Nathan. I can’t believe I wasted two centuries on you._

I nodded. “Okay. I will.”

I heard Edward’s stern voice cut through the fog in my head. “I can’t find your vein anymore, kid. You gotta drink some of this or you will die.”

His words ‘you will die’ echoed through my head like a mantra.

“I will die.” I muttered.

 _Do it now._ My sire hissed.

Like the flick of a light switch, my body felt energized enough so I could rip the manacles off the wooden frame. I collapsed into Edward and glanced off his left side purposely. In the time it took for me to fall to the floor, I reached out and grabbed the hunting knife that he always had holstered at his hip and drew it from the leather sheath.

I landed on my back and smacked my skull against the concrete floor as I brought the six inch serrated black and grey blade down towards my own heart.  
  
I heard no other sounds and saw nothing else except the blade. I closed my eyes and put all of my force behind the killing blow but something blunt and heavy knocked the blade from my hand.

“NO!” I snarled as the blade skittered across the concrete floor. “NO. NO. NO”

I made a lunge towards it but a heavy body climbed on top of me and pinned my hands down against my sides. The temporary strength my sire had granted me left and I felt weak and hollow once again.

“Nate! Look at me dammit!” Edward snarled from above me.

I shook and thrashed in his arms. I didn’t like this position. I didn’t like him on top of me but when I tried to buck him off, he pinned my shoulders to the floor.

“LOOK AT ME!” Edward snarled.

His mottled hand grabbed me beneath my chin and stopped me from moving my head. I opened my eyes and saw that the bit of skin where the bridge of his nose use to be contracted in the same way a human’s nostrils would flare when angry. His thin lip curled into a feral snarl of defiance and frustration.

Salty tears dripped down his ruined face and landed like raindrops on my face. “Don’t listen to a fucking word he’s telling you, you hear me? You will destroy Jack if you give up now.  He loves you.  I fucking love you. And if you fucking leave him like this, I will be sure to kick your ass in Hell for the rest of eternity once I’m dead.”

“You don’t understand.” I said. “The pain … the memories … I can’t —“

“But you must.” He insisted. “Now drink some damn blood.”

Edward shoved a blood bag into my mouth and I bit down instinctually. The blood congealed in my mouth and it dripped down my chin and cheeks like spilled molasses, but I forced myself to choke down every bit that I could.

“That’s it. Good.” Edward murmured in relief and ran a rough hand through my dirty, matted hair.

I finished the first bag and accepted the second that Edward passed to me without protest. While I fed, my sire berated me for my failure.

“The bastard just wont shut the fuck up, huh?” Edward asked when he saw the pained expression on my face.

I shook my head and let the second empty blood bag fall out of my hands. I was trembling from the sudden influx of blood and my stomach rolled in warning.

“I gotta turn on my side.” I groaned.

Edward helped me roll over but didn’t let go of me or leave my side. As he settled against my back, the heat his ghoulish body gave off felt like I was backed up against a radiator.

“Take off your shirt.” I croaked. “If I can use your body heat to raise my own temperature a few degrees, then the blood can flow easier which should help me heal a bit more.”

I felt the hesitation and the uncertainty. His strong forearm held me tighter for a second and I knew that he was debating if this was a ploy to make a grab for his knife again.

He took a risk and sat up and pulled his shirt off and then grabbed me once again. The heat he gave off was stifling but I pressed my body against him and tried to bask against him like a reptile lying in the sun.

“I’m sorry.” I croaked.

Edward shook his head. His own barrel chest heaved as his breath caught in his throat. “You gotta keep fighting Nate. There’s nothin’ else you can do in this fucked up world besides keep fighting.”

“I don’t know if I can keep fighting.” I said. “I’m tired of fighting. I’ve been connected to him for so damn long that he knows every single way to get into my head. After a while, it all just becomes futile. Why fight it when he’s going to win?”

“Because you don’t have to fight him alone.” Edward promised. “Jack and I have had to fight our fair share of personal demons. We will help you fight yours.  Come Hell or high water, we will break this damn thrall.”

I pressed against Edward’s large, hard body and relished in how sturdy he felt. As a tall man myself, I found it comforting to be held by a body larger than my own. The feeling brought me back to an old, old memory. A memory of a young man two years my junior who sensed something about me that I had spent a long time ignoring. I thought of his hard body and his broad shoulders and how he curled up against my back with the same blistering intensity. He, not the creature, was my last waking thought before my mind fell into a catatonic sleep-like state as the sun rose above the horizon.


	9. Chapter 9

**Jack’s POV**

I made it back to Parsons by midday. Sweat dripped down my back which made my lab coat stick uncomfortably to my skin. Now that the serum had run its course, physically exerting myself, whether it was running, climbing, or crawling, took far more energy and taxed my body a lot more. I felt the years begin to weigh on me. For the first time in my long life, I felt old.

Although the journey back to Parsons went without issue, I still had the miles of road to think about my looming mortality. Like a heroin addict, the nagging desire to inject more of that life-giving substance into my veins loomed over me like a perpetual dark cloud. I had never gone off the serum longer than a couple of days; I wasn’t like Emogene, reckless and impulsive, and the thought that I might die nagged at the back of my mind.

When my mother made the decision to go off the serum, I begged her not to. Then I got angry. I couldn’t believe that she was willing to throw away over 475 years of history, memories, and experiences. She was a young woman when the Civil War broke out. She was there in person when Abraham Lincoln gave his Inaugural Address in Washington D.C. She gave birth to me a mere week before President Lincoln’s fateful assassination (and nearly named me Abraham in homage to the Great Emancipator). And yet she was willing to give up all of that because she ‘felt it was time.’

I couldn’t understand what it would take to give up the serum. I was certain that I’d never give it up; it was a part of me now and I was prepared to live indefinitely. Going off the serum for a couple of days as Edward suggested so I could heal was one thing, but as soon as he had radioed to me that Nate was dying and needed blood, fresh Pre-War blood, I knew there was no other choice. Nearly a week had passed but I still hadn’t taken the fresh dose.

Maria and her guards paid me no mind when I crossed the grounds outside of Parsons. I let myself in the front door with my key and went straight to the administrator’s office. I pulled out my old employee ID badge and swiped it in the card reader and the cool elevator operator’s voice emitted garbled static as the door opened and I stepped inside.

The elevator took me to a second laboratory, a secret one which only Edward, Emogene, and my late mother knew about. The laboratory was stationed right outside my father’s living quarters. A five inch thick plexiglass observation window allowed me to look in on my Father and an intercom system which connected directly with the ancient switchboard allowed for two-way communication. Talks with my father never went well, and I didn’t anticipate this time to be any different. Nevertheless, I pressed a small red button near a vocal speaker box and lowered my head towards the microphone.

“Father. I’d like to talk with you.”

I heard nothing over the intercom except the soft sounds of his phonographic records droning a warped and slightly slowed down version of Mozart’s “Symphony No 40 in G minor.”

“Father, please?” I said a little louder.

“If my son wishes to talk to me then he can face me like a man.” Lorenzo replied.

“Last time I did that, you attacked me.” I said mimicking his stiff tone. “I’m not putting myself in that position again.”

“Then I have nothing else to say to yo—“

“—Mother is dead.” I interjected.

The music abruptly stopped and an uncomfortable silence fell between us.

“What happened?” Lorenzo’s voice didn’t waver from his steely tone.

“She decided to stop taking the serum.” I said with as much of a pleasant bedside manner as I could muster. “She said that she was tired of cheating death. The last twenty-five years seemed to weigh on her more than ever.”

He didn’t respond so after a moment I added, “She passed away peacefully as she slept. I was with her the entire time. We — uh —” I cleared my throat as my own sorrow crept up into my throat, “we buried her beneath the large oak tree outside of the asylum. You know…the one where you and her use to take evening strolls when she came to visit you…before…”

My words failed. I was about to say “before you went crazy” but my father didn’t think he was crazy.

My father remained silent and my heart thundered in my chest. Memories of my father’s steadily building anger and explosive rage came back to my mind. Who knew that four hundred year old memories could be just as vivid as when they first happened?

“She left a letter for you.” I said in a shaky voice. “I’ll give it to Rosie to pass on to you.”

Rosie was the name I had given to the Miss Nanny that I had stolen from the General Atomic Galleria. Because of my father’s psychosis and his powerful telekinetic ability, I only allowed robots to deliver him supplies, fresh clothes, and other amenities. After over two hundred years of repairing broken Mister Handys and Protectrons that had been on the receiving end of my father’s rage, I was relieved that my father finally allowed Rosie to serve him.

“How long ago did Wilhelmina die” My father finally asked.

My heart sank. I knew he wouldn’t like the answer.

“She died thirty-seven days ago. I didn’t tell you when it happened because —“

“— Because you didn’t think your Father deserved to know that his wife had died?” His deep voice boomed throughout the lab. “Because you’re a selfish little fuck just like your whore sister and didn’t think that I deserved to know? Or was it because your mouth was too full of cock that you didn’t have the capacity to open it and tell me this a month ago.”

His anger built and built until it felt like a tempest was let loose in his cell. Things flew around his living quarters as though an invisible tornado had swept it up. My father stood in the center of the room, arms outstretched and his eyes closed, as he unleashed the full force of his power in the room.

Although his telekinetic abilities were only short range, I could feel the electric energy seep into my laboratory. The hair on my arms stood up as though I was caught in the middle of a storm until everything finally subsided and my father collapsed to the floor in an exhausted heap.

He managed to pull himself up so he could lean against his bed. The ancient relic that he found in the Arabian Desert four centuries ago sat on his head like a literal albatross. He never took it off, even when he slept, and I sometimes wonder how different our family’s lives might be if Father had never found the cursed city of Ubar.

“Father…”

“Get out of my sight.” He said with dignified vitriol.

I turned off the intercom with a shaky hand, grabbed my knapsack, pulled Mother’s letter out from the side pocket, and activated Rosie.

As the Miss Nanny powered up in the containment pod, I turned away from my father and removed my glasses to hastily brush away the tears. I couldn’t remember the last time that my father and I had a pleasant conversation. I told myself long ago that my father’s judgement didn’t matter. I was my own man. But in the end, I was lying to myself.

“Good morning Jack. Would you care for some coffee?” Rosie’s asked.

“No thank you. Please give this to my Father when you tidy his room. He had another outburst.” I handed her the thick envelope and she pinched it in her blunt shears.

“Oh no.” Rosie tutted. “Shall I punish him?”

“No.” I said sternly. “Just clean up after him and send me a list of items he’ll need repaired or replaced. I’ve connected your charging station to the laboratory terminal. All you need to do is think the items in succession and a list will be sent to my office upstairs.”

“Jack, you are such a clever boy.” Rosie’s white eyestalks wiggled in maternal praise.

“Do you need assistance upstairs when I am done?”

I was going to dismiss her but thought against it. “Actually, yes. I need you to find as much abraxo cleaner and purified water as you can. Pour them both into the mop bucket that’s in the janitor’s closet and meet me outside the solitary confinement cell.”

“Of course Jack. I’ll do that right away after I tend to Mr. Lorenzo.” Rosie chirped.

While the Miss Nanny set to work on her daily tasks, I grabbed my things and entered the decrepit elevator which went to the cell blocks, my personal laboratory, and Edward and my sleeping quarters. As the elevator ascended, my thoughts returned to what my Father had said. The homophobic slurs and curses I could let roll off my back — I’d heard them time and time again — but his accusation that I was selfish weighed on me.

The doors slid open and the female announcer’s voice let out a long bit of static which use to say “Cell Block A — Please Mind All Posted Rules.”

At the far end of the hall, Edward was asleep on a cot that he must’ve dragged out of a cell. His combat armor was piled underneath the cot and his hefty combat rifle peaked out from beneath as a warning to all trespassers. Once I approached his lightly snoring form, I picked up the half full rum bottle that was tilting precariously in his lax grasp and placed it safely on the dirty concrete floor.  
  
“Edward…” I murmured. I gently stroked along the rough and patchy skin on his forehead but he didn’t stir.

I slid the metal peep hole aside and peered into the solitary confinement room. Nate was on the far end of the small cell strung up like Christ himself. His shaggy hair obscured most of his face but the stench of blood, vomit, and decay made my eyes water. This couldn’t stand. I refused to let Nate live in these horrid conditions.

While Edward slept, I radioed up to Maria to have one of her laborers start boiling some water and start the purification process. I’d need far more purified water to clean him than what Rosie could give me.

I brought a gurney over to the cell and took the keys that were lying on the floor next to the cot. I knew I was safe enough while the sun was out. Even if Nate wanted to, he couldn’t fight the catatonia that took him once the sun rose.

I used Edward’s key to unlock the cell door, but then a movement caught my eye and I spun to meet it. Edward jolted off the cot far faster than a man of his size should move, and reached out blindly and pushed me up against the cell door. The hunting knife that was sheathed at his hip glinted when he drew it. The cold steel kissed my collar bone.

“Get the fuck away from him!” He snarled still half asleep. “You’re not taking him goddammit!”

“Edward. Edward. Calm down. It’s me. It’s Jack.” I said in as soothing of a voice as I could.

His eyes flitted around taking stock of everything in the shrewd, commanding way that I admired. Once his eyes finally settled on my face once again his expression melted away into utter sorrow and relief.

“Edward what the he—“

Before I could scold him for nearly cutting me, he sheathed his knife and wrapped me up in a spine-cracking bear hug. “Oh my God. Damn Jack. You scared me. I had — agh — I had a nightmare that something happened to you…that he got you…and…”

“Shh. I’m here. Okay?.” I hugged him back and it felt like I was hugging a mountain. “I’m safe and I’m back. Now catch me up on what’s been happening with Nate.”

Edward let me go and pulled me farther away from the the cell door as though Nate might overhear us.

“It’s not good. This is the worst I’ve ever seen him, and that includes the night we found him. That fucking monster wont let him go. He managed to break one of the manacles open just to claw his damn chest to pieces because his sire commanded him to. It took me damn near close to twenty minutes to wrestle him back onto the frame. Then he broke free again and stole my knife. I barely stopped him from driving the damn thing into his own heart.”

“What!?”

“That cunt is fucking with his head to the point that he’s suicidal!” Edward yelled. His gravel voice echoed down the hallways.

“We’ll figure out a way to break the connection. We’ve done it before.” I insisted.

Edward shook his head. “Here I thought that you … you know … fucking him — that it would’ve taken care of the issue.”

I winced at his crass language but he ignored me. “Now he’s so blood starved that I doubt he’d have the strength for another round with one of us.”

“There’s one thing we haven’t tried.” I said.

“And what’s that?”

“We could give him some of my blood.”

Edward scoffed, “C’mon Jack. Be serious.”

“I am being serious Edward. I stopped taking the serum like you suggested.”

There was a beat of silence before Edward said in an exasperated whisper, “Jesus Jack, I only suggested that you go off it so your wounds could heal faster. I didn’t mean that you should’ve quit it and add yourself onto the menu."

“I didn’t really have a choice.” I said stiffly. “I’m the only rad-free and healthy donor that you’ll find within miles of this place, and I know that Nate will need to immediately feed as soon as he wakes. Feeding him the 200 year old stash that we do have is only prolonging the inevitable. He needs fresh blood to heal, so either we set him loose on Vault 81 or we get creative.”

Edward sighed. He knew it was futile to fight me. I could be just as stubborn as he could. “So how’s this gonna go then? You’re just gonna give him a couple of pints here and there until he’s fully healed? That could take months.”

“The healing process will speed up a bit after the first donation. But as soon as he’s feeling stronger, I’ll have to play a more active roll in the donation.”

The ghoul half-sighed and half-growled as he unpacked the meaning behind my innuendo. “Which puts you in greater danger once again.”

I sighed at Edward’s souring attitude, “Look I have a theory that the … sexual congress we shared last time didn’t work because the thrall is built on dominance. Because Nate wasn’t in the dominant roll, the connection between him and his sire wasn't challenged — in fact, we probably just reinforced Nate’s submissive status through the thrall — but if the rolls were reversed and if he…”

“Jack. What if he goes too far? This can’t be like the incident three years ago.”

“It wont be.” I insisted. “You’ll be there this time. You’ll make sure he drinks my donated blood and then once he’s stronger, you’ll be with us to stop him in case he gets a little too overzealous.”

“I still don't like it.” He sighed.

“Why not?!”

Edward opened his mouth to provide an answer but nothing came out. He sighed and shook his head as though he was disappointed in his own cowardice to come right out and say it. “He hasn’t ever bitten one of us. With you though … I just don’t like the idea that Nate will be connected to you like that.”

“What d’you mean connected?”

“I mean —“ He sighed and pinched the flesh between his eyes, “I mean that when Nate feeds, it’s more than him just getting sustenance. The things we’ve done for him to get him through the thrall, it’s been like helping him scratch an itch. But offering yourself up as the main course? There’s passion there, it’s intimate, and … I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

Suddenly the pieces fell into place. “Edward are you jealous?”

He squinted as though he was about to deny it but then stopped. “Maybe.”

I rubbed my hands along his forearms. “There’s nothing to be jealous about.”

“I don’t want to share you like that.” He mumbled into the top of my head. “Helping Nate through the thrall or having the occasional bit of fun is one thing, but —“

I silenced his worries with a kiss, tender and languid, so he remembered that promise we made to each other beneath the blossoming lilac tree in the back garden. He was my husband in every way but name. I loved him and had been in love with him since we first met. Nothing would change that.

When we broke apart, I nuzzled into his board chest which knocked my glasses askew but I didn’t care. “First things first,” I said, “Nate needs my blood. The rest … we’ll just have to deal with it as it happens, okay?”

Edward nodded. We both broke away and slipped into Nate’s cell. Edward released him from the rack and carried him back to his quarters while I set to work moping up the results of Nate’s torture.

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

When I awoke I found that someone had cleaned me from head to toe, dressed me in loose fitting flannel pants which were three inches too short on me, and scrubbed away all evidence of the blood, bile, and grime that had caked my body. I also smelled the faint scent of shampoo each time I turned my head.

The cell door creaked open which sent a flood of hallway light into this new cell. Fully illuminated, I almost didn’t recognize that I was lying in my own bed — although I was still chained through the iron slats in the headboard. Edward stepped through the doorway pushing another stainless steel medical tray. Two blood bags sat on top while several others were in a basket on the bottom of the cart. He was wearing fresh clothes beneath his combat armor but he looked absolutely exhausted.

“What happened?” I croaked. “How did I make it back to my room?

“Jack made it back here a few hours after sunrise. I cleaned you up while he cleaned up the solitary confinement cell. He thought that you’d be more comfortable if you recovered in a bed rather than being strapped to that rack for another night.”

I rested my head against the pillow in relief. “Thank you.”  
  
“Don’t thank me. I wanted to leave you on the rack. You know, just to be safe.” Edward said as his lower eyelids twitch up in concealed amusement.

“Don’t tell me the sight of me tied up turned you on.” I quipped.

“What can I say. Maybe my taste does run towards bondage from time to time.” His heated expression had a greater impact on me than I thought and I strived to sit up so I didn’t feel so vulnerable.

“So what’s for dinner?” I asked, conveniently changing the subject.

Edward grabbed the first blood back from the tray. The liquid inside moved beneath the medical grade plastic like syrup. The hue was the most vibrant scarlet red that I had ever seen. I could almost smell the salty, metallic tang from here.

“Where did you get that blood? It looks fresh.”

“It is fresh. Drink it.”

I turned my head away in horror. “Where did you get it Edward?” I asked again, now with a tone that told him our little jokes were over.

He sighed, “This one isn’t tainted. I swear. It’s Jack’s.”

My mind was slow to process this information. “What?”

“Jack went off the serum.”

“Why in the Hell would he do that?”

“Well after you attacked him, he left Parsons in a hurry and got tangled up with a baby deathclaw. I patched him up at the house but the stimpaks wouldn’t work while he was on the serum. He hasn’t taken another batch since. Although as soon as you’re better and as soon as I can figure out a way to get you in the same room without you losing control, I expect you chew him out for this just as much as I did.”

“I will.” I croaked.

“Nevertheless, Jack sends his regards. He wishes he could be here but …”

I nodded which cut Edward off. He didn’t need to explain it to me. From the smell of his bagged blood alone, I knew it would be nigh impossible for Jack to be anywhere near me while he was off the serum. His blood just smelled too damn good.

“Go on.” Edward said.

He held out the plastic tubing that was coiled near the top like it was the straw sticking out of a thick chocolate shake. The smell alone lingered in the back of my throat and all of my other questions and concerns about Jack’s current well-being fell by the wayside.

I tentatively sipped and watched the luminous red liquid travel up the tubing like a macabre children’s curly straw. When the first taste hit my tongue I lost myself in the exquisite pleasure. I could think of nothing else, in my human life or vampire one, that tasted and felt as amazing as this.

“Oh God…” I groaned and pulled against my bonds. My jaw ached as instinct told me to bite through the bag but Edward held it just out of reach.

“Drink slowly.” He murmured. “That’s it.”

Each mouthful of blood flowed over my tongue like a thick, heady broth. I felt like a starving man who was finally being introduced to real food once again. The blood stashes around Parsons were enough to keep me alive but drinking fresh blood, nearly straight from the source, was incomparable.

I suckled at the tubing until I felt my canines slip in front of my natural eye teeth. After that, drinking from the tube wasn’t feasible without slicing my lips up with my fangs so Edward tore the tubing off the top and tilted the blood into my mouth.

Once I finished the first bag, Edward helped me lie back on the bed. My head spun. I felt drunk and giddy. This feeling was known as a ‘blood high’ and it happened as a result of physiological changes from the influx of blood in the body. My hands flexed and I wiggled my toes as I regained feeling in my outer extremities.

“Turn on that space heater and lie next to me.” I panted. “I need to get my body temperature at or as close to a human’s as possible for Jack’s blood to have the best effect.”

Edward dragged the small space heater over and plugged it into an electrical outlet. The artificial heat that blasted from it felt like the very fires of hell were licking at my face, but as my body warmed up, the heat began to feel more comfortable.

“Do you want the other bag?” He asked.

The greedy and hedonistic part of me wanted to stay ‘yes’ but my survival mind kicked in. “In a while. Just lay behind me like you did yesterday.”

“D’you want my shirt off?”

“Skin-to-skin contact would be the best…yes.”

Edward did as I asked. He shirked off his combat armor with practiced ease and pulled the threadbare shirt off. His chest was a battleground of pink and red scars amid his mottled and radiation damaged flesh but he didn’t seem to be self conscious about the way he looked.

He climbed over my body and squeezed into the tight space between the concrete cell wall and my body. For two men who both surpassed six feet in height, we fit in the twin bed as best as we could.

“We need to get you a bigger bed.” Edward grumbled.

“It’s been a while since you’ve shared my bed. I forgot about it being a tight squeeze.” I said.

Edward’s trunk-like arm curled around my bare waist and pulled me in as close. His warm, rough hand covered my sternum and it felt like someone had placed a heating pad on my chest. In the silent room, the ghoul’s strong heartbeat thudded like a two-hit drum beat.

Between his touch and the space heater, my body was warming up after spending days sitting at room temperature which was just above sixty degrees. That sort of core body temperature would be fatal to a human but to a vampire it merely slowed our metabolisms down.

After ten minutes, Edward rumbled in my ear, “How are you feeling?”

“Good. Much better actually. I’ll be ready for that second bag soon.”

Edward reached over our heads and grabbed the blood bag from the nightstand and set it on his hip so it would be ready. “You just let me know when, okay?”

I made sure that my shackled hands were away from his other arm that was tucked beneath my head and then I slipped my leg in-between his. I knew that I’d reach climax from drinking this second bag, and that truth simultaneously aroused me and repulsed me. Edward had given me a helping hand in these matters before, so the pretense was there where this exchange didn’t have to be awkward, but it didn’t make me feel any less of a sexual deviant.

“What do you want me to do while you feed?”

“Just touch me.” I breathed.

Edward unbuttoned my pants with one dexterous hand and slid the fabric just low enough to free my half-hard cock. The blood I had already consumed colored my cheeks and shoulders, giving me the illusion that I was blushing, but it was no difference than someone turning red from excitement or overexertion.

His rough hand trailed down my bare chest and stomach and took my cock into his hand. Although he was trying to be gentle, his ruined flesh and calloused hands were still too much and I jerked out of his grasp.

“Not like that.” I hissed. “There’s vaseline in the nightstand drawer by our heads. Grab it.”

Edward’s long arm reached over the metal headboard and pulled the drawer open. It took him a minute to rummage around the other junk but he finally pulled out a small tube.

“How do I check if its expired?” He asked as he twisted the cap off.

“It’s been 200 years. I’m pretty sure it’s expired. Vaseline doesn’t go bad as long as it is kept in a place that is below room temperature. It probably wont lock in moisture and hydrate my skin, but that’s not what we’re using it for.”

“Fair enough.” Edward agreed and squeezed a dollop of the clear jelly into his palm. “You ready?”

I nodded. “I apologize ahead of time for the mess I’m about to make.”

“Are you talking about with the blood or your cum?”

“Both” I growled as the change overtook me.

His rough hand stroked me with a firm but sure grip and I grabbed the blood bag with my shackled hands. His hot breath blew my hair away from the nape of my neck and I instinctually moved my head aside to offer him more of my flesh.

He kissed me just below my ear and then laved his tongue along my jugular. I whimpered in exquisite agony as, ever since I was turned, that spot on my body was now incredibly sensitive. When Edward’s tongue passed along that spot again I jolted my hips back into his and felt his own erection rub up against my ass.

“God.” I panted. “Edward — ah — please — dammit.”

“I can’t read your damn mind Nate.” He growled. “Tell me what you need.”

“Bite me.” I whimpered. “Please.”

Edward did so without hesitation. His blunt teeth bit into my neck just hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to draw blood. I heard the sloppy sounds his hand made as he stroked me faster and then I lost myself to instinct.

I tore into the bag. The plastic felt nothing like biting into the salty, sweat-soaked flesh of a human victim but the blood it contained — Jack’s blood — made up for it. I drank greedily but I still couldn’t swallow it all down. The lukewarm liquid dribbled down my cheeks and onto my neck and chest until the bag was empty and shriveled.

I took in a gulp of air and tossed the bag onto the floor just as Edward’s ministrations had its desired effect.

“Go on Nate. That’s it.” He murmured encouragingly.

My hips thrusted into his closed fist and my entire body tensed up as I spilled myself into his hand. Each pulse felt like miniature shockwaves and I cried out Edward’s name followed by a series of rapid curses.

I jerked against him as the aftershocks of my orgasm radiated outward from my core. Edward’s cock, now impossible to ignore, rubbed along the top of my ass through his clothing. The profound silence in the cell block seemed to amplify our noises ten-fold, but I was far past caring whether or not we could be heard.

I floated in a blissful world as the flood of endorphins from my orgasm and from the feeding pulsed through my body. The wounds on my chest were now healed into pink scars and I felt strong enough to stand and move around.

Edward discreetly wiped his hand off on a handkerchief that he pulled from his pants pocket and then climbed off the bed. His absence was noted immediately and I rolled onto my back, my shackled hands now over my head, and propped my leg up so my thigh obscured the scene of the crime.

“Here.” He murmured. He poured a can of purified water onto a hand towel that was hanging over a towel rack and cleaned the blood off my face and neck.

“Thanks.” I said hoarsely.

“Don’t mention it. I still owe you for not checking the blood first. Consider this the first good deed of many.”

“Edward, you don’t owe me anything. I’m sorry if I made it seem like that was your fault. It wasn’t. My sire is the literal devil hellbent on destroying the life I’ve built without him. We’ll get through this just like last time. The thrall will fade back to a whisper eventually.”

“Glad to hear the optimism.” He said as he buttoned up my pants, zipped my fly, and pulled the heavy wool blanket up over my half naked form. “We can talk later but you need to rest and let the blood do its thing. I’ll check on you in a couple of hours, okay? Jack’s expecting me.”

I caught the urgent tone in his voice and noticed that the ghoul was walking a bit bowlegged. He trudged out of my cell, locked the door, and made a bee line right for Jack’s room. I closed my eyes and listened and soon I heard Jack’s high pitched whine and Edward’s low murmur followed by the slapping of skin against skin.

Hearing Jack and Edward together wasn’t a new thing; they had a healthy sex life and were intimate with each other at least three times a week, but their amorous moans did nothing to quell my own overactive libido and I fell asleep at sunrise with sex and blood on the mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pearl in The Far Harbor DLC established that Miss Nanny’s may have a non-French accent as an alternate vocal setting. I am working with that established cannon for Rosie since I’ll never be able to write a French accent without making it sounding like a mockery.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Otherwise known as the chapter where Nick and Nora think they're Van Helsing.

Chapter 10

**Nora’s POV**

When the dust and gunpowder settled, twelve feral ghouls laid dead at our feet. Their grotesque, emaciated faces were frozen in animalistic snarls as their foul-smelling blood leaked onto the floorboards.

Within an hour of leaving the agency, we were caught in a radstorm which came up out of nowhere near the National Guard Depot. We had no choice but to take shelter inside after dealing with the hordes of feral ghouls that inhabited the place. The firefight was brief but ferocious. At one point, two ghouls rushed Nick and he was forced to fight them off by bludgeoning them with his metal hand before he could get his gun into their chest.

I trembled. My palms tingled from the fight-or-flight adrenaline that coursed through my veins. I barely noticed that my gun shook in my hands until Nick gently took the pistol away and ushered me into the next room.

He pushed two metal file cabinets against the wooden doors and then helped me sit down on a yellow explosives crate.

He passed me some water and a bottle of pills. I pushed the bottle away but he insisted.

“Doll, take some Rad-X. Your geiger counter has been ticking ever since we got here.”

“I’m fine.” I wheezed.

“Doll…” He looked at me sternly and I knew there was no point in arguing.

I groaned but relented and I tossed a Rad-X and and an antibiotic back with a couple swigs of warm water and wiped my mouth on my sleeve.

“I think one of them got me.” I shuddered. Actually I didn’t think, I knew, one of them got a bite in because my shirt stuck to to the aching wound.

“Here. Sit down and let me help you clean that.” Nick said. I lifted up my shirt to reveal the damage and he whistled low. “Look’s like he got you good.”

Nick knelt down next to me and cleaned around the wound with a rag damp with purified water. Each time he passed over the wound, hot pain radiated out from the site like a bad sunburn. My voice choked in my throat when he gingerly cleaned in the wound itself and I jerked away.

“Jesus Nick!”

“Sorry.” He murmured. “I’m tryin’ to be gentle.”

“I know.” I choked out. “Agh. Just … fuck.”

“There. It’s all clean. Now you’re gonna feel a pinch.” Nick murmured.

I hissed as the stimpak entered my skin just above the wound. The medicine was cold when it entered my body and it felt like someone had replaced my blood with ice water. Despite the odd side effect, the stimpak soothed most of the pain and within an hour, there would be nothing but a faint red mark.

“There ya go.” Nick said capping the syringe. "You okay?”

“Yeah. You?”

Although he looked disheveled and his trench coat was ripped at the shoulder, he nodded. “You’re here. I’ve never been better.”

“Yeah well maybe this wasn’t the best place to stop and wait out the storm. What if there’s more?”

“Oh there’s definitely more.” He said and he pointed to three points in the room. “There’s one fifty meters away on the other side of the lobby, there’s two above us, and there’s two right outside.”

“So we’re trapped?”

“If we lay low here, I’m hoping most will just go back into hibernation and then we can sneak out of here.” Nick said. “But we gotta be discrete. That means we’re sleeping rough and without a fire until this storm passes.”

I nodded. Nick and I had slept rough before. It was the nature of the wasteland. After two months of sleeping on dirty concrete floors and on the ground, my back finally relented and stopped complaining. Of course, the abysmal sleeping conditions just meant that things I once took for granted, a clean bed and a working shower or toilet for instance, were luxuries.

I grabbed my sleeping bag from the large burlap military bag that I … well Nick carried, rolled it out on the ground, and climbed inside. I burrowed down into it and zipped the bag up to the top. I prayed that the heat from my breath would quickly warm up the the inside.

Nick rummaged around the room collecting ammunition and valuable scrap that he’d then break down to raw materials to make it easier to carry. After an hour, he took my seat on the empty explosives crate and lit a cigarette. Rumbles of thunder passed directly overhead and a flash of yellow made my Pipboy’s geiger counter jump a few points. I shrank deeper into the sleeping bag and tried my best to fall asleep.

Sleep had always been an elusive thing for me. At first I thought it was due to my coffee addiction, and then I had Shaun and I realized I might just never sleep again, and now … now I had so many other things to worry or things that I’d be thinking about that I’d run myself ragged until I finally wherever my body fell. Once I even passed out on a bench right next to the loud printing press outside of Publick Occurrences.

“Doll?”

“Hmm?”

“Your teeth are chattering more than that geiger counter of yours.”

He was right but I didn’t know that I was being that loud about it. “Sorry. I’m just cold. Stimpaks have that effect on me, and since we can’t built a fire I’m trying to warm up this damn cheap sleeping bag with my body heat, but that requires that you have body heat to spare.”

There was a pregnant pause before Nick spoke. He cleared his throat and I heard his boot stub out his cigarette. “I — uh — do you want me to help warm you up?”

I bit my lip and shuddered slightly when he said that. There was no way I couldn’t take that as a come on line. But then again, he was being a gentleman, dammit. Sure, it had been a long ass time since I had shared my bed with anyone other than Dogmeat but he probably didn’t mean it like that. He was just being polite. He was being a good partner. A good friend.

Then I heard doubt creep into Nick’s voice, “I — uh — look I know I ain’t exactly a prime candidate for doin’ this compared to Piper or that Irish dame. I’m a synth and you don’t have to … hell … synths make for strange bedfellows as it is but —“

I unzipped the bag and scooted towards the far side, “It’s okay Nick. I’d appreciate the help. Could you just slide in behind me? Once I warm up a bit, you can leave and go do other things. I’m a heavy sleeper.”

“You’re the boss. You just tell me if it gets to be too much. I tend to run a bit hotter than humans.”

Lord have mercy.

I exercised all of my self control to not verbally respond to his thinly veiled innuendo, but that didn’t mean my body didn’t respond in kind.

My stomach clenched in anticipation as Nick slid in behind me and zipped the bag up once again. It was a tight squeeze but thankfully my back was against his chest so he couldn’t see how flushed my face was. His arm rested safely on my hip while his other arm slipped under the crook of my neck. My head fit right beneath his chin as though we had practiced this arrangement our entire lives.

More thunder echoed overhead and then a loud crack accompanied the rumble. It sounded as though someone had shot a cannon and I shrank back against Nick pressing my ass against him. He didn’t rebuke me or tease me, but I did feel the muscles in his face move ever so slightly into a smirk.

“Sorry.” I murmured.

“No problem.” He grunted. “It may help if you just try and fall asleep.”

My head rested against the faded grey trench coat Ellie had given me when I accepted the job to be Nick’s partner. It still smelled of the office, of stale coffee and cigarettes, and I closed my eyes and tried to imagine that I was back there instead of holed up in an abandoned military base waiting out the radstorm.

“Doll?”

“Hm?”

“I — uh …” He sighed and his grip on me tightened just a little. “You’re a good fighter. I just mean that you can handle yourself. This whole thing could’ve turned out way worse for us if you hadn’t been there. So thanks.”

I smiled. Praise from Nick was rare and that was true about both iterations of the man. When he gave praise, he meant it. “Thanks. We make a great team.”

Within minutes I felt the elusive dregs of sleep pulling me down. I wanted to fight against them. I wanted to just bask in how good it felt to be held by someone else again, but I fell asleep with my fingers entwined in Nick’s synthetic hand.

* * *

**The Creature’s POV**

I woke up suddenly and all at once. It took me a quarter of a second to realize that someone was nearby and it took only a half a second for me to determine that the someone wasn’t vampire kind.

I saw the figure before he saw me and I grabbed him by the throat and pushed him up against the stone wall. He squealed like a stuck pig when my talons pierce his neck. I was careful with my grasp to ensure that I didn’t accidentally sever an important artery. As idiotic as these raiders were, they still served a greater purpose than being gutted…for now.

“What are you doing?” I spat.

The raider’s bloodshot eyes widened. His pupils were artificially dilated by whatever chem he had taken to give him the strength or the stupidity to wander into a vampire’s den. I also heard the gentle dribble of liquid running down his leg as he pissed himself out of fear.

“Speak now or I’ll rip your throat out.” My voice was calm, almost monotone as threats landed better without the use of hysterics. People were more apt to listen to you, to believe you, if you spoke directly.

“M-master I — I saw the Vault Dweller you are looking for. S—she is with a robot or s—something.”

I smirked. I knew each word he uttered felt excruciating. A part of me wanted to move my thumb just a centimeter deeper into his throat so I could render this pathetic worm permanently mute.

“Where are they off to now?”

“P—Parsons…” He wheezed.

His heartbeat rapidly thudded in his chest. If I held onto him any longer he’d go into cardiac arrest from the trauma so I threw him back into the tunnel that led outside.

“You will go and tell the others that we stick to the same plan.” I ordered. When I walked towards him, he skittered backward on his hands and feet like an awkward spider. “No one moves on the Vault Dweller or her companion. No one gets within their line-of-sight. She is mine. Do you understand?"

“Y-yes master.”

He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the cave clutching his injured throat. His blood dripped down my fingers like oil and I grimaced. I hated raiders, especially chem fiends whose blood felt like hot tar against my skin and smelled like refuse. They were inedible and often more trouble than they were worth, but I was at my wits end.

As I cleaned off my hand with a damp cloth I closed my eyes and reached through the thrall. Tangible walls blocked me from accessing his mind but I still saw glimmers of what he saw. If our thrall was fully bonded again, I’d be able to inhabit his body and his mind like it was my own. I got hard just thinking about how it use to be between us, how it felt when I entered his body and inhabited his mind and tipped him over that precipice. Our mutual climaxes felt like the Earth beneath us had shifted on its axis, and as much as I hated to admit it, I missed feeling his hard body against mine.

I growled in frustration. I almost had him back. Goddamnit. I tainted both of those boys with my own blood fully expecting that would’ve been enough to bring Nathan back to me. When he disobeyed me again … I lost my temper. And now he somehow found access to pure blood. That was the only explanation as to why the thrall was as weak as it was. Somehow this Jack Cabot asshole must’ve found purified blood from somewhere as Nathan didn’t have the fortitude any longer to hunt like a real man.

No. His morals, his values, and his insufferable hippocratic oath constantly got in the way of him living up to his true potential despite my best efforts to break him. I failed to entice him back to me three years ago, and then again about eighteen months ago, and again just a week ago. But now I had access to something that would most assuredly break him.

I had access to his wife.

And Nathan would land on his own sword if that meant his wife was safe.

I smiled as I pulled on my combat armor and slid the gas mask over my face. I loaded my pistol and strapped a sharpened machete to my hip. These primitive weapons were nothing but costume pieces as the real weapons at my disposal were far more visceral, but sometimes being armed helped instill the appropriate fear in these simple minded beasts.

Dealing with the robot wouldn’t be an issue. They operated on subroutines and binary commands, but they weren’t intelligent. Which meant that when it was out of the way, I’d have uninhibited access to everything that I wanted.

Ten years was a mere blip on the timeline of an immortal like me but it was still the principle of the matter. Nathan would pay for those ten years he robbed from me, and I’d start with tearing down the very things he cared about, starting with his precious wife.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

Twilight was upon us by the time Nick and I made our way to the Greentop Nursery. The people who lived there were a sorry lot of rag tag people. Their leader, Skip, accosted us at gunpoint before we even stepped off the broken asphalt road that led past their greenhouse.

“State yer business.” He barked.

“The name’s Nick and this is my partner Nora.” He nodded his head in my direction while showing the man that he wasn’t reaching for his weapon. “We just wanna talk a minute if that’s alright.”

Skip narrowed his watery blue eyes at us and then motioned for us to go up the hill with a sharp jerk of his rifle.

We followed his command and walked towards an old shed which now housed a family of four. The matriarch of the family had a sunburned face and hair to match. Her three small children hid and whimpered behind their mother’s skirts.

“Hey, it’s alright.” I knelt down and spoke to the young girl who had silent tears streaming down her face. “My name is Nora. What’s your name?”

The girl rooted her face in the dirty fabric and squeaked, “No raiders.”

“Oh I’m not a raider, hon. I’m…” I paused. How could I explain the concept of a detective to these people when the idea of law and order was 200 years out of date? “I’m here to help.”

“Mika” The mother jerked her head towards the shack they had just come from. Mika, who looked to weigh no more than 90 pounds soaking wet despite being almost as tall as I was, gathered up his two siblings and ushered them back to the shack.

“What d’ya want?” She barked. “We don’t take in wanderers, nor do we got anything to trade.”

Nick cleared his throat and stepped in. “Is your name Natasha by chance?”

“Tasha.” She corrected him and then she scrutinized Nick’s face. “Wait a minute. You’re that funny robot from three years ago. I hired you to find my daughter and all you brought back to me was her … her …”

The woman sank heavily to the ground and let out a wounded scream. The raw pain that emerged cut through my chest and I had to turn myself away from the scene. I made that very noise when I emerged from the vault without my son.

“Why the hell did you come back here?” Skip asked as he helped his wife up off the ground. “Chloe’s been dead for three years. You said that the men who kidnapped her and raped her were all dead. So what d’you want from us now? We got no more money to pay you, and you sure as shit ain’t gonna rob us for it!”

Nick held up his hands a little higher and took a step towards them. “That’s not what I’m here for at all. I don’t want your money. I just had one question for you and then we’ll get outta your hair.”

Skip narrowed his eyes but he still didn’t lower his gun. “You got real nerve ya know. What the fuck’s your question?”

Nick bowed his head and looked up at the man hoping to implore some mutual goodwill. “Look I know this is gonna sound like a screwy question but just bare with me. What do you think killed your daughter?”

“Those loads of shit raiders who —“

“— Not who.” Nick interjected. “What.”

Skip laughed a loud bark-like noise and then shook his head in disbelief when he saw that Nick was serious, “Get the fuck outta here before I shoot you both.”

But both Nick and I saw the fear in his eyes. There was something he wasn’t telling us.

“Please.” I interjected, “I lost my son too. He was taken from me and for a long time I didn’t want to come to terms with that fact. If you tell us what you know, we can hopefully stop whoever is doing this. I’m sure you’re not the only family who’s been impacted.”

The woman’s lip quivered and she looked at me with watery, red rimmed eyes. “It was a vampire.” She said with complete certainty.

“Shut up, woman.” Skip growled but his wife jutted her chin out in defiance.

“Dammit! We can’t keep pretending that’s not what it is! Chloe should’ve never got a job over at that damn insane asylum. He seduced her…and he … he —“ She faltered and then she looked pleadingly at Nick and I. “The bastard had the balls to show up a year after we buried Chloe. He must’ve come at the dead of night when we all was asleep because he left us a note and a pile of caps, 20,000 total, and promised to leave us be if we didn’t poke around the asylum grounds anymore.”

“Do you still have the note?” Nick asked.

Skip grunted in annoyance but went over to the dilapidated shed, rifled through a rusted metal lock box, and pulled out a yellowed and folded piece of paper.

“Take it. We don’t want it. And if you see that demon spawn, you can thank him for the 20,000 caps right before you shove a stake in the bastard’s chest.”

I took the note. The paper felt ancient beneath my fingertips, raw and textured like parchment.

“Thank you.” I replied. “I know how hard this must be for you. We appreciate you talking with us.”

Skip grunted and trudged back into the house with his family leaving Nick and I out in the amber sunlight.

“Let’s get goin’ doll.” Nick muttered.

We walked through the forest in silence and made it back to the crumbling road before I couldn’t resist any longer and I opened the note.

“Hold up Nick.”

The letterhead had faded into undefined blobs of color but the handwriting below was still legible. The handwriting was sloppy and scratchy cursive and I read aloud:

Chloe’s death will haunt me forever. I tried to stop it and I failed. I’m sorry.

Nick took the note from me and frowned. “Jesus, how can you make heads or tails of this?”

“I’m use to reading terrible handwriting. Nate was a doctor. I think terrible handwriting is just a part of the job.”

“Well that would fit Jack Cabot’s vocation if he is indeed something supernatural.” Nick said.

The sun crested over the tree line as it set in the western horizon. Night was already approaching fast and we needed to get a move on towards Parsons.

“Any idea how we’re gonna question our perp?” Nick asked. “I doubt a vampire would take well to being interrogated.”

I snorted at how absurd that statement would’ve sounded a mere month ago. “This was just a recon mission, remember? Let’s sneak in, look around for more evidence, and sneak out. If Parsons is truly a vampire nest, we can’t let them think we’re on to them.”

Nick nodded and we made our way down the road.

I bumped his shoulder with mine and grinned at him, "Are you ready to do this?"

“Of course.” He replied. “I've got nothing to fear with you watching my back.”


	11. Chapter 11

**The Creature’s POV**

The cool evening wind howled through the dead trees. From behind my gas mask I surveyed the arid world with predatory focus. The Parson Asylum roof peaked over a mass of rocks and the wind blew the guards’ scent towards my lookout post. Their scents commingled together, but they all repulsed me. They all suffered from some kind of disease, infection, or addiction, and the older ones on patrol were tainted with radiation. Smelling the human refuse almost made me miss another scent, this one far more palatable and divine.

I sniffed the air again and my throat burned with thirst. I had fed a few days ago and I wasn’t in dire need of sustenance yet, but that didn’t matter. The smell, sweet and almost floral, entranced me. There was only one explanation as to how a wastelander could smell that good. He or she must’ve lived in a Vault. Vault 81 was a possibility as the traders sometimes made their rounds through the Commonwealth, but they smelled stale like a loaf of bread that was a day away from spoiling. She smelled like a fresh loaf of bread hot out of the oven.

It was the Vault Dweller. It had to be. I was sure of it. I sniffed the air again, now parceling out the scent of her companion. The robot she was allegedly with didn’t give off the typical metallic or gasoline odor that was common for their type. Instead it smelled like tobacco and old books. Odd.

As they walked closer to the road that led to the asylum, I caught snippets of their conversation on the wind.

“… we gotta be on our guard, doll….”

“… sneak in and pick the lock….”

“Just a quick in and out and we’ll ….”

“…encounter the vampire…”

A smirk toyed at the corner of my mouth. Oh they would indeed encounter a vampire.

I climbed down hillside and kept to the trees. My footsteps were light and I slunk through the underbrush slowly so as not to spook them. As I moved closer to the duo, the woman’s smell lingered in the air like perfume. Floral, sweet, and heady, I hadn’t smelled anything quite like her in two centuries.

I heard how the dirt and branches crunched beneath their feet and deduced they were a 200 meters distance away and approaching from my right. I waited among the thickets and dense trees like a lion hiding in the tall grass for the wary antelope to cross his path.

The robot climbed up the hill first. He was dressed like a 1930s hardboiled detective with a long grey trench coat, dress slacks, and a grey fedora. Maybe its original master or creator had some sort of pulp fiction fetish. Unlike Mister Gutsys, Assaultrons, Protectrons, and Sentry Bots, I couldn’t discern a power source which would easily render it inoperable. And as they approached, I heard the strangest thing of all. It had a heartbeat.

Nathan’s wife, the Vault Dweller, crested the hill after the robot. Her dark hair was pinned back to reveal vivid green eyes. Her full lips parted slightly and she was breathing heavily from the walk. Her traveling clothes hid the soft and feminine features of her body but I knew from the worried and faded photograph that Nathan always carried on him that she was shapely and strong beneath her traveling clothes.

I rose from my crouch to get a better look but the robot’s head snapped in my direction.

“Wait, doll.” It said and grabbed on to her arm protectively. “I—I think there’s something nearby.”

The Vault Dweller stopped and looked to where the robot was looking. Her hand immediately went to the gun on her side as did the robot.

So the robot had preternaturally keen senses. Fascinating. Most robots utilized thermal imaging to scan the area for human threats. As I didn’t give off body heat, they were never able to find me … until now.

“Who’s there?” The Vault Dweller called out. Her voice sounded brave but her scent told the truth. She was scared.

Fear, like lust, was a cloying and seductive scent that toyed at my instincts. If she ran, I would pursue without question, but when coupled with drumming of her heart, so vital and full of life, I knew there was no way I could back out now. Her blood called to me like a siren’s song. I wanted her and I would have her.

I walked out from behind the trees with my hands raised. The machete at my hip bounced with each step, the blade glinting in the moonlight. Both of them had their guns trained on me but I smiled from behind my mask to make my voice sound more amiable.

“Please don’t shoot.” I said.

“What are you doing out here?” The robot barked with cop-like authority.

“I’m just looking for something to eat.” I said in a calm and measured voice. “It’s been a few days since I’ve fed.”

The Vault Dweller moved slowly to my left and away from her robot compatriot. Her heartbeat thudded in a steady ba-bum ba-bum rhythm which echoed in my brain like the beat of a war drum.

“You look like a raider.” She said. “What settlement do you belong to?”

“None. I’m a hunter. I live alone.”

The Vault Dweller and her robot shared a look. She cocked her head in my direction and blinked twice and the robot nodded.

How cute. They were communicating in code.

“You got a name, bub?” The robot asked.

“I do.” I confirmed. “But I’m pleading the fifth on that one. I’d rather not tell you my name.”

To a vampire, names could be powerful. Names could bind you to someone and allow you to control them. The only other being who knew my name died some two and a half centuries earlier; I ripped out her dead, black heart.

“Look.” The Vault Dweller said, “We just wanna get by so if you just let us go, we’ll all part here happy and alive.”

I sucked in my breath and hissed a little, “I haven’t been alive for a very, very long time Nora.”

Through my green-tinted visor, I saw the Vault Dweller jerk at the sound of her name falling from my lips. I knew she felt my presence in her mind. My influence over her would be small. I could probably entice her closer to me but she could fight it provided she had enough willfulness to do so. But if I drank from her…if I put her into my thrall …

“How do you know my name?” Her voice held steady despite how loudly hear heard pounded in her chest.

I smiled wide, “Your husband told me all about you.”

“That’s impossible. My husband is dead.” She snarled and took a step towards me.

I rolled the vowels of her name on my tongue and visualized what I wanted her to do. I wanted her to walk towards me, away from her robot bodyguard and away from safety. All I had to do was to say her name again.

“Yes he is dead. But it’s not impossible.” I said.

“What do you mean it’s not impossible?” She seethed.

“Doll…” The robot warned from behind her.

I continued, “He spoke about you quite often. Especially in our early years together. He had a bad habit of living in the past. I suppose as a Pathologist and a Medical Examiner, he’s use to living in the past.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Nora snarled.

She cocked the hammer back on the revolver. I almost had her.

“I’ve known your husband _Nora_. Actually, I’ve known him quite intimately. I bet you never knew that your husband wasn’t exclusive with just you. Did you know that he enjoys men as well as women?”

“You son of a bitch.” She snarled and took two more steps forward which was all I needed.

She didn’t see me move until I was standing behind her with my arm around her neck in a choke. I knocked the gun out of her hand as easily as swatting a butterfly out of the air. As I squeezed down on her neck, she grabbed onto my bicep to struggle for air. The thin, rattling wheeze that came from her throat thrilled me.

“Let her go!” The robot ordered. His gun was aimed at my head. No matter how good of a marksman he might’ve been, I had the faster reflexes and as soon as he pulled the trigger I could move the Nora into the bullet’s path like she was my personal human shield.

She struggled in my grasp and tried to get her leg behind mine to sweep me off my feet, but I stepped away from her and tightened my hold so her eyes slightly bulged out from her skull.

“I wouldn’t do that.” I purred in her ear. “I was planning on killing you quickly. Anger me and I’ll make you wish you had died when the bombs fell.”

“What do you want?” The robot snarled.

I ignored the cop and reached out through the thrall.

“Nathan.” I shouted aloud.

My outburst didn’t phase the robot man and he kept his pistol aimed at my head. “I ain’t askin’ you again, pal. What the fuck do you want with her?”

Nathan must’ve felt my heightened excitement because he reached out through the thrall on his own free will and saw what I saw.

_No. NO Oh God. Please don’t! DON’T HURT HER. Please! Please!_

Nathan’s fear and anguish crackled through me with orgasmic intensity. He was so angry that I could feel him clawing at his own skin as though he could crawl through himself and get to me.

“This is what happens to those who defy me Nathan.” I snarled aloud.

I ripped off my gas mask and bared my fangs at the robot. His yellow eyes widened in shock and in horror but he quickly regained his composure. He fired two rounds at my head, two at my right shoulder, and two more at my knees. As soon as the first bullet discharged from the gun, I moved out of the way and all his shots hit the trees behind me.

When the robot noticed how quickly I had moved his mouth dropped in astonishment. Now it was my turn to impress.

With my left hand, I pulled a five inch serrated knife from my hip and threw it with practiced ease. The blade would’ve struck its artificial heart but the robot twitched away at the last second so it entered just below his rib instead.

“NICK!” Nora choked out in my arms.

The robot fell backward from the blow and clutched the knife hilt. Dark, viscous coolant poured from the wound.

I turned my focus back on my prey and craned Nora’s head so her tan neck was pulled taught. Her pulse was visible in her vein and that was the final temptation which pushed me over the edge. I sank my teeth into her as a chorus of voices screamed around me. The Vault Dweller tasted fresh and sweet like the first bite into a watermelon in the summertime. As I drank more, her blood turned heady and thick like a tankard of beer after a hard day’s work.

Out of my peripheral, I saw that the robot was trying get up but the pain and inability to breathe correctly made him collapse to the ground.

_NO! NO! STOP DAMN IT! PLEASE I’LL DO ANYTHING!_

There it was. My favorite three word phrase that Nathan had ever said to me. I smirked which smeared some blood along her neck before I pulled away.

“What will you give me Nathan?” I murmured against his wife’s skin, her blood dripping from my mouth wet and hot.

_I’ll come back to you. Just let her go. Don’t kill her and don’t turn her._

“You have a deal.” I said.

A mix of relief and fresh fear pulsed out through the thrall. I brought my wrist to my mouth and bit down until a small pool of blood bubbled up fresh and bright in the moonlight.

“Drink or you will die.” I murmured to Nora and I forced my wrist to her lips.

She choked and sputtered but it didn’t matter. As soon as she swallowed the first gulp down, I could feel that my blood was in her system. I was inside of her and I reached out through the newly formed thrall and established the connection.

A human/vampire thrall was a far more limited type of communication than a typical thrall. If I was in earshot, she’d obey my orders and If I was nearby she’d feel my presence. She’d dream of me. She’d crave my touch, and she’d never be satisfied until she was in my arms once again. But I wouldn’t be able to communicate with her like I could with Nathan. That type of telepathic bond required that I make her my fledgling…my progeny.

“I’ll be in touch, pet.” I whispered behind her ear. “Don’t forget about me.”

I looked at the robot who was now prone and helpless like an overturned beetle and then pushed the Vault Dweller away from me with such force that she fell forward onto her hands and knees and then collapsed onto the ground.

I pushed my will through the thrall as I wiped the Vault Dweller’s blood from my lips and licked the residual blood from my fingers. “You will meet me outside the Parson Creamery no later than midnight otherwise I’ll come back to finish the job.”

I walked over to the robot, kicked his pathetic gun away from his hand and pulled my knife out of his stomach. His yellow eyes flickered as the coolant stained the dirt beneath him, and I disappeared back into the forest to wait for Nathan.

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

“I’ll come back to you. Just let her go. Don’t kill her and don’t turn her.” I begged.

_You have a deal._

I curled up on myself as I watched the creature sigh in pure bliss as my wife’s blood dripped from his gaping mouth. I had pushed through the thrall in my rage and now I could feel everything my sire could. I felt my lips, in addition to his, on my wife’s neck. The steam from her leaking blood was visible in the cold night air. I heard the greedy slurping as my sire drank his fill. My only saving grace was that I couldn’t taste what he could; I couldn’t taste my wife’s blood, and thank God for that.

I felt my sire pull away from Nora. He looked down at her in unfiltered lust. The thoughts of what he wanted to do with her and to her had me sending hot waves of rage through the thrall as though my fury could burn him from the inside out.

A tear dripped down her face and mingled with the blood dripping off her neck. She was panting and her pink tongue peaked out from behind her full lips as though she could taste the very molecules in the air. Her heartbeat raced as the organ worked double-time to pump whatever blood remained in her body and she trembled in the creature’s arms like an injured rabbit.

My sire brought his wrist up to his mouth, bit through the skin, and offered his blood to her. Nora tried to refuse but she was too weak to put up a fight. As soon as her tongue tasted the blood, her chest sobbed in relief as she drank deeply.

Oh God. She was his.

As I watched my sire toss Nora away like discarded trash, I was roughly shaken back into reality. Colors, sounds, and light swirled around me in a disorienting miasma.

A deep, rough voice cut through the chaos and said, “Nate. C’mon. Talk to me. What’s happened?”

My sire reached out through the thrall and I felt the raw power of his influence push out into me. I hadn’t felt this kind of strength from him in a more than a century.

_You will meet me outside the Parson Creamery no later than midnight otherwise I’ll come back to finish the job._

“Yes, master.” I murmured.

As soon as I consented, the thrall bound me to that promise and my sire closed the connection leaving me alone and empty in the cold cell.

“Nate! NATE!” Edward’s voice boomed above me and I opened my eyes.

His face swam in front of me like a warped watercolor painting. I inhaled and thick tears ran down my cheeks. How long had I been crying?

“Edward …” I gasped. Air filled my lungs again and I coughed hoarsely, “God — I.”

“Breathe Nate. I’m here.” He said. “You’re safe.”

I shook my head, “Jesus Edward, he attacked Nora. My sire. He’s so close now. He knows I’m here. And Nora’s nearby? He attacked her.”

I knew that I sounded like a raving madman but my head swam in pain and I tried to orient the pieces into a coherent series of events.

“What d’you mean Nora is nearby?” Edward growled. “Why would she come all the way up here?”

I ignored his question. My head pounded and my throat burned with my own reawakened thirst. Although I couldn’t taste Nora, my inhuman nature didn’t differentiate. Seeing another vampire feed was more than enough to reawaken the bloodlust. I needed blood.

I scrambled off the ground and rifled through the large cooler in the corner of the room. I pulled out a blood pack and tore into the cold, syrupy substance trying to imagine anything other than what it would feel like to bite into Nora.

I drank deeply until the bag shriveled in my hand and I threw the empty plastic into a wastebasket. After a few deep breaths to gather my thoughts and push the monster in me back into the depths, I walked back to my bed and collapsed onto the mattress.

“She needs medical attention, Edward.” I said wearily. “That synth copy of Nick Valentine was with her. I think he’s hurt too.”

“Where are they?” Edward demanded. He withdrew his pistol and checked the chamber before holstering it again.

“They’re close. Maybe a mile? Maybe less? They were coming from the southwest. That’s all I could see. I’m sorry.”

The ghoul shook his head dismissing my apology. His warm, rough hands mussed my hair. The gesture seemed so mundane for how panicked I felt.

“Just relax Nate. Me and Jack will get ‘em.” Edward said.

I swallowed and felt my tongue brush along my fangs which were retreating back into my gums. My promise to my sire chimed in my head and I felt like I was beneath a guillotine awaiting execution.

“I have to leave Edward.” I said in a rush.

“It’s fine Nate. Jack and I will get to them. I promise you. We’ll — “

My eyes met his and I knew he could see the faded silver-blue of the monster still receding.

“I can’t fight my nature Edward.” I whispered. “And if Nora is here with me then she’ll always be in danger.”

Edward’s eyes narrowed and he scrutinized my face. “We’re not gonna just put you out like that. Where would you go?”

The guilt and the anxiety that briefly flashed across my face said everything that I couldn’t.

“Jesus Nate. NO!”

I met his eyes and set my jaw in a hard line of defiance. “I don’t have a choice! I made a deal with him Edward. My life for Nora’s and now that my sire has fed from her, he’s regained some of the control that he lost. Nora’s blood is potent; I’d wager more potent than Jack’s and I can’t defy him this time. The thrall is too strong.”

“Do you know what he will do to you once he gets you?” Edward asked. “He will kill you.”

“I’m already dead.” I shot back grumpily.

“You know what I fucking mean.” He snarled. “Nate, this is gonna kill Jack.”

“I know.” I murmured. More tears slipped down my cheeks. “He can’t know that I’m gone until Nora’s safely back at Parsons.”

Edward’s hard face crunched into even more severe lines. He looked like a glowering skeleton in the low light. “He loves you Nate. He isn’t gonna like this. Fuck, I wanna punch you in your face just for making a deal with that bastard.”

Indeed, Edward’s right hand was clenched so hard that the fine joints of his knuckles were visible through the thin, scarred membrane that had replaced the ruined skin.

I nodded and I grabbed the ghoul’s clenched fist. “Edward this past decade has been more than I could’ve ever hoped for. But I made a vow to Nora and I don’t take that lightly. I can’t love her as I am but I can protect her from my sire … and from me.”

The ghoul’s ragged face softened a little. If there was anything that Edward understood and respected, it was loyalty. He had served the same family … Hell … the same man for over 250 years. Jack and Edward were just as married as Nora and I were and I knew that Edward would’ve made the same decision in a heartbeat if the tables had been turned.

The ghoul pulled me to my feet. I swayed a bit, still not completely healed from my sire’s previous mutilation of my body, and he hugged me with such a force that our chests slapped together.

“No matter what that bastard does to you or makes you do, you don’t fucking give up. We will come and get you. I swear. I will drag you away myself if I have to.” Edward growled in my ear.

I didn’t have the heart or the time to protest, nor did I tell him that there might be only parts of me to drag away after my sire was through with me.

“I’ll try.” I replied. “Just take care of Nora first.”

Edward sighed. “I’ll go get Jack and we’ll head over there right way.”

“Nora can’t leave from here.” I said. “She’s taken his blood. He’ll be able to find her anywhere in the Commonwealth. This is one of the few places in which he can’t enter so long as Jack and Emogene are alive.”

The ghoul nodded solemnly.

I shuddered and then I said, “I need you and Jack to do me a favor.”

“Anything.” Edward agreed.

“Tell Nora about me. Tell her the truth. She deserves to know. Don’t hold anything back. If she wants to know more she can read my journals. They’re all here more or less.” I gestured at my bookshelf.

The ghoul nodded again Then he gently grabbed around my neck and placed his scarred lips to my forehead. The kiss was brief but firm. It was such a paternal and protective gesture that it made my dead heart ache in my chest. Here we were, two soldiers, two brothers, two lovers, saying goodbye the only way we knew how.

When I broke away from Edward, I slipped out into the dusty and decrepit hallway and ran towards the stairs which would lead me back outside and back to the monster that made me.

* * *

**Nick’s POV**

Hot crackling pain jolted across my circuits, through my chest, and down my spine. Every warning buzzer, bell, and alert in my brain was chiming at full obnoxious intensity.

When my sight came back online, I sought out Nora and found her lying pale-faced, half bloody, and unconscious two feet way from me. Her heartbeat was weak and rapid but it was still there. Blood dripped from the wound in her neck while a darker blood leaked down her chin and the corners of her mouth.

The bastard had fed her his blood. Vampire or not, what kind of sick freak would do that to someone?

I rolled onto my side and groaned as my exposed wiring ached like they were exposed nerves. I dug my feet into the rocky and hard ground and I tried to push myself on my back towards Nora.

Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through my body. More annoying chiming came from my brain which sent disorienting flashes of the original Nick getting shot in the shoulder by a gangster who got the jump on him. It made it damn hard to focus on the task at hand without wanting to just lie back and die. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t quit on Nora.

I fished around in my pocket for the small soldering iron and multitool that Nora smugly called a ‘robot repair kit’ every time she had to use it on me. The knife wound was about an inch and a half long and was just below my lung. The knife had slipped between my fourth and fifth rib.

I slipped my intact hand inside the wound as every nerve, synapse, and conduit in my body screamed at me to stop. Then I slipped the device into the widened gap and pressed down on the top to complete the circuit.

The small, two pronged ends zapped with electricity and I touched the ends to my metal rib. It felt like a Super Mutant had punched me in the chest. The breath left my lungs and my vision and hearing shorted out again as the electric shock cauterized the severed arteries and supercharged my heart.

I pulled the burnt out smoking device and wrinkled my nose at the acrid smell of burning electronics. My hand trembled and when I opened my eyes the tips of my fingers, all the way to my knuckles, were stained black with coolant.

My vision was in greyscale and my hearing was muffled as though I was hearing sounds while being underwater, but at least I was alive. So I resumed my crawl to Nora’s prone form.

“Doll?” I cried out. Light static crackled over my voice.

She was sprawled out onto her side with her face pointed away from me. Her dark hair had fallen out of their pins and coiled around her head like a wild mane. Blood seeped down her tan skin and her side and chest heaved irregularly as she gasped for air. When I finally got other, my coolant stained hand touched her forearm and I gritted my teeth. She felt cold.

“Doll?”

Her eyes fluttered beneath her eyelids and each breath she took sounded laborious and wet, like she was choking on the blood that bastard had fed her. I fished out our last stimpak from the bag, a cloth, and some purified water and cleaned the bite wound and her bloodstained mouth. I cupped her cheek and shuddered at her cold skin. The puncture wounds in her neck were about an inch and a half a part but the skin around the bite was starting to bruise and discolor.

As I wiped the blood from her lips and chin she shirked away and moaned “No!” in a pathetic and almost needy voice.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me, doll. I gotta clean you up.”

Then she opened her eyes. Nora’s face was always easy to read — she made a terrible poker player — but when I looked into her eyes this time, I saw heat and desire. It was more than the flirtations we shared, more than the undercurrent of desire that I felt for her; Nora was sexually aroused.

“Nick…” She breathed out. “What happened?”

“You mean you don’t remember?"

She closed her eyes again and felt the bite mark on her neck. When her hand pressed over the cleaned wound, she moaned softly and bit her full lip. She unconsciously pressed her chest out towards me and I tried to look anywhere but the full swell of her breasts beneath her threadbare t-shirt and jacket.

“Nora? What was the last thing you remember?”

When she pulled her hand away from the wound, two small drops of blood remained on her palm and she looked at them with morbid fascination. Her head cocked to the side as though the blood was puzzling to her.

“Nora.” I said sharply.

She jolted and looked into my eyes. And I saw something else in hers. Her green eyes were unusually pale; it was almost like a thin film was obscuring their normal brilliance. Her pupils were unnaturally dilated. It was like she was a chem addict who had just shot up some Psycho.

“I — I feel … weird.” Nora said hollowly.

“Can you explain how? Maybe I can help you. We still have some medicine left in our bag, and we —“

“— I need to find him.”

“Find who?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she struggled to her feet and swayed like a newborn radstag and began walking towards the tree line.

“Nora, wait!” I got up from the ground. My own wound burned and ached but now that I wasn’t at risk of overheating, I tried to compartmentalize the pain into a different part of my brain.

When Nora saw me following her, she started running towards the tree line.

“Nora!”

She was fast but one of my strides covered two of her own and I caught up to her before she could disappear into the bushes. I grabbed her around the waist like I was hugging her from behind and lifted her off her feet.

“LET ME GO.” She snarled.

She thrashed against me kicking and clawing my face like an angry cat. My hat got knocked off my head in the tussle. She elbowed my wound and I cried out as my legs collapsed beneath me, taking her down as well.

My mind clicked into cop mode and I got on top of Nora, put my knee into her back, and handcuffed her hands behind her back.

“Let me go Nick!” She snarled. “I need to get back to him. I have to —“

Him? Nora was trying to get back to that vampire? Then the answers clicked in my head.

“The blood he gave you is making you do this Nora.” I said calmly despite how hard my heart was pounding, “This isn’t you, doll. His blood probably acts as a drug on people to make them more complacent.”

“I am not drugged Nick Valentine.” She seethed. “Undo the handcuffs. NOW!”

“Nick! Nora? Where are you?” A higher register baritone voice called from over the ridge.

Nora jolted as someone said her name, but I recognized the voice. It was Jack Cabot.

“We’re over here!” I yelled.

Nora growled. A sound so unlike her which was low and feral in her throat.

“Doll. It’s —“

Nora let out a scream that could’ve sent a deathclaw running. A small vein in her head bulged as she writhed against the handcuffs kicking out at me.

“Fuck you.” She spat. Her pupils were fully dilated. Only a thin sliver of pale green remained. “Go to hell.”

“Lucifer’s balls. What the hell happened?” Jack cursed.

I surpassed my own anger and frustration and glowered up at Jack. “Did you know you got a vampire problem up here?”

Jack looked to Edward with a questioning look as though he was looking for the ghoul’s approval. Edward nodded his head and jerked it towards Nora.

“How much of his blood did she drink?” Jack asked me.

I froze. Jack knew about this other vampire? I scrutinized him starting from head to toe. His dark eyes looked stern and worried but not hungry. Not like the animalistic hunger that I saw in the other creature’s face after he removed his gas mask. Jack’s fingernails were cut short and naturally clear unlike the black daggers the creature sported. I blinked once and activated my thermal vision and looked up at them both. Jack and Edward both showed up in a swath of yellows, oranges, and reds, like every other human.

Jack wasn’t a vampire.

He pinched the bridge of his nose where his glasses were perched and turned to Nora who was lying on her belly. “Mrs. Pendleton, how much blood did you drink from the vampire?”

“Go fuck yourself.” She spat again.

Jack frowned and sighed. He approached Nora’s head and turned her head to examine the bite wound. His intelligent eyes swept over the the puncture marks and bruised skin, Nora’s body, and my face as though he was formulating his own theory as to what exactly happened. Then he withdrew a small syringe from his lab coat and removed the cap.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I’m giving her a mild sedative.” He replied. Edward came around to Jack’s side and held Nora’s shoulders so she couldn’t jerk away. “This will help her get through the worse of the effects until I can get her started on fluids and a possible blood transfusion to flush out the vampire’s blood from her system.”

Nora growled again but Edward’s grip was too strong. Jack looked at me for consent and I nodded. Nora needed help and if Jack and Edward were the two we had to trust right now, then so be it.

Jack slid the needle into her neck and dispensed the plunger. Nora whimpered pathetically and Edward held onto her until she stopped writhing and fell silent.

The huge ghoul stood up and then lifted Nora, who was still handcuffed, onto his shoulder like a potato sack.

“Edward will bring Nora back to Parsons while I accompany you to get your stuff.” Jack said.

I eyed the large ghoul. He was in full combat armor and he carried an impressive-looking .44 magnum revolver on his hip. He looked like he could handle himself but I was worried about Nora.

“Nora will be fine.” Jack said to me. “Edwards senses are more keen than mine so he’ll know if the vampire tries to come back and start more trouble.”

I nodded at the ghoul, retrieved my hat, and walked back to the broken road where our bag sat in the dirt. I retrieved our guns and shouldered Nora’s canvas bag. It was now completely dark. The clouds obscured the stars and the silver crescent moon. I could see fine thanks to my augmented synth vision, but then I looked at Jack.

He met my gaze and I saw my yellow irises reflected in his horn rimmed glasses.

“I imagine you have many questions for me.” He said. “I’ll try to answer as many of them as I can once were safely inside Parsons.”

I coughed once. I craved a cigarette but my pack had run out soon after we left the National Guard Depot. “I appreciate that.”

Jack nodded. “However, I do have one question for you, which you are going to answer for me right now.” His voice was smooth but I could detect the irritation that fed it.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

I frowned, now defensive. “We are investigating a murder that happened here three years —“

“— A murder in which the suspect in question was thought to be a vampire.” Jack finished for me. “And you decided that a human Vault Dweller and a prototype synth could stop said vampire if you caught him?”

“We thought _you_ were the vampire.” I seethed. Now I was hurt, and tired, and irritated at myself for having brought Nora on this misguided chase.

Jack bark-laughed, “And now your parter has been brutalized by a real vampire. Are you happy?”

“Of course not.” I growled. “I wanted answers, that’s all.”

Jack sighed as we walked towards the dark facade of Parsons State Insane Asylum which stood out against the clouded sky like the House of Usher, gothic and macabre in its decrepit abandonment.

“You’ll get answers Detective.” Jack said softly. “But I doubt you’ll like what you hear.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s some sexual content ahead and a whole lot of exposition dump setting up for the next chapter. 
> 
> Also, if you have thoughts as to how you're liking the story, feel free to drop a comment below. I'm having fun writing this semi-melodrama and I hope you're having fun reading it. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, comment, leave a kudos, or bookmark. I appreciate all the support.

Chapter 12

**Nate’s POV**

Acrid smoke billowed into the night sky as I crested the hill to that led to Parson’s Creamery. The walk was barely a mile and I made the journey slowly and begrudgingly, yet I couldn’t stray from my path if I wanted to. My master’s thrall pulled me towards him like I was a disobedient dog.

As I got closer to the decrepit barn, three raiders crept through the shadowy tree line watching me with bright, hungry eyes. I smelled it on them immediately. They reeked of the typical raider smells: blood, feces, urine, and cum, but they also smelled too much like him, like my sire.

“Traitor.” Someone growled from the trees. “Pathetic cunt.” Another hissed.

I felt his presence as soon as I stepped out of the trees. I looked up at the large red barn and saw my sire standing in the open hayloft looking down on us all. His long brown hair was tied back into its typical aristocratic and elegant style but he wore no shirt against the cold. His stocky, broad chest was painted gold in the firelight and small red and purple marks marred his skin from superficial cuts along his abdomen and chest.

Jesus. He was feeding them all. My master was enthralling an entire raider group.

“Hello Nathan.” He said cooly.

I couldn’t speak. My fight or flight instinct was screaming at me to run away, but I knew that would be useless. The verbal agreement I made to return to him was binding. As his progeny, I was bound to him by the thrall but also by whatever mutation or magic that allowed me to exist as one of the undead. I promised to return to him in exchange for Nora’s safety. There was nothing I could do to break that promise now.

My sire stepped off the hayloft, dropped thirty feet to the ground as though he was stepping off the sidewalk into the road and came to me with startling speed.

I made myself look him in those cold, hazel green eyes. I wouldn’t cow to him. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t the same man who had walked into that alleyway all those years ago. I wasn’t his prey.

He studied my face intently. His eyes scanned me from head to toe with paternal concern and thinly veiled rage.

“What? No ‘hello’ for your father?” He sneered.

“I upheld my end of the agreement. You will leave Nora alone…forever.” I said quietly.

“I will not harm a single hair on her head.” He stated solemnly. I could hear an implied ‘but’ in his tone and I narrowed my eyes.

“Oh c’mon.” He tutted. “You know that I keep my word. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

“No.” I gritted out through my teeth.

“See?” He smiled. His blunt, human teeth were unnaturally perfect and white. “Now let’s not stand on ceremony here. You are back. The prodigal son returns. Are you hungry?”

“No…thank you.” I forced the last bit out and my sire noticed.

“Come.” He commanded. I jerked forward as though someone pulled me by my shirt towards the barn and followed him.

“When was the last time you fed?” He asked.  
  
I moaned as his influence pushed in through the thrall and compelled me to answer him.

“An hour ago.” I had to restrain myself from spitting the words at him.

The creature shook his head. “I don’t count that bagged swill you insist on drinking as food. I’m talking about from a person, a live human person. When was the last time you fed from one of them?”

“You know when.” I growled.

My sire smirked. “I know. Three years is far too long. Come.”

I followed him into the barn as though an invisible leash and collar had attached itself around my neck. The roof was partially gone which let in starlight and moonlight. The barn held shipping containers with the crude image of a cartoon cow dancing next to a milk tankard. Behind the containers were three people tied to meat hooks which hung on their own individual pulleys below a wooden staircase. Their feet barely skimmed the ground and blood dripped from their body and off their toes. They looked like butchered cattle hanging up in a meat freezer.

“Take your pick my pet.” My sire said. “You’ll need your strength for what’s to come.”

I felt my stomach lurch from the fear and the reawakened hunger of seeing fresh…well mostly fresh … people on display. Seeing them trussed up was about as erotic as seeing buxom women and tall, fit men dancing on poles in a strip club, and God help me, my body responded in kind.

I walked over to a young man with russet red hair and dull, watery blue eyes. He saw me and struggled but his mouth was gagged. The dirty cloth was tinged pink and I inhaled the sweet, salty scent of blood. Fresh blood.

I lifted him up off the large hook that he was hanging from and held him against me. His body was firm despite the harsh wasteland life. He must’ve been a farmer or a merchant before he had been abducted, but any of the life and vitality he once had was long gone. I wasn’t holding a man in my arms but rather the remains of a victim.

My sire looked disdainfully down at him. “Finish him off Nathan. He was close to expiring soon anyway.”

The way he said that, with such casual contempt, made it sound like he was giving me permission to drink the rest of the milk in the fridge rather than take an innocent man’s life.

I eyed the man’s throat. His pulse was slow and weak and I knew he’d be dead as soon. I tried to look at it like a mercy killing. Like if he was one of my soldiers who had been captured by the Chinese forces, I’d rather shoot my man than have him tortured for information.  I allowed myself to believe that this wasn't any different.

“Thank you master.” I murmured and bowed my head in proper supplication.

“Go on Nathan. Enjoy.” He replied and he pulled a petite young woman off the rack, spun her around so that her back was against him, ran his hands along her body like a lover, and then savagely tore into her throat.

The animalistic sounds, the smell of blood, and my sire’s sublime pleasure, which he forced into me through the thrall, broke my already feeble resolve. I fell upon the man with such ferocity that we collapsed to the ground together. I bit and tore through ligaments and muscle. Blood poured into my mouth, swept over my tongue and cleansed my throat like a cold glass of water.

I drank and I drank some more until the man’s heartbeat ceased altogether. When his blood stopped flowing, I wrapped my lips around his severed carotid artery and sucked every last bit of life I could from him.

Minutes passed as I lost myself in the blood, in the euphoric rush of giving in to my dark nature. Then a sharp force pulled me up by my shirt collar. I stumbled to my feet and blinked, feeling drunk and heavy from the blood, and felt a cold metal chain surround my wrists and cut into my skin.

“You’ve had your fun Nathan.” My sire hissed. “Now its time for your punishment.”

A raider pulled down the hook and cable that my victim use to be hanging from and attached the hook to the chain that bound my wrists.

“Master…please…” I begged. The man’s blood dripped from my mouth staining my shirt.

My sire gave a curt nod and I was hoisted a foot off the ground with my hands bound over my head. He then walked over the girl's body like he was stepping over a puddle, picked up something from behind a steamer trunk, and brought it over to me. The whip was a cat o’ nine tails with a black leather handle which looked like it was stolen from some S&M sex shop, but each one of the tails had something glinting, sharp, and threatening at the end.

“Now Nathan,” The Creature said in a soft and reasonable tone “you have done wrong by me and you need to reflect on your actions. Remember our rule for when you ran away from me last time?”

I shuddered. My previous escape hadn’t been that long, only two weeks, and I barely made it past Quincy before he caught me again. He gave me 10 lashes for every day I was gone. My eyes widened in horror.

The Creature rolled his wrist experimentally and the metal bits at the end clinked together like off-key wind chimes. “I do believe I owe you 36,400 lashes for the ten years you’ve been away, and to drive this point home, I’ve added a little decoration to my accouterment for dramatic flair.”

He brought up one of the metal tips and pressed the fleshy pad of his finger against it. His skin sizzled as though he had put it directly onto a greased frying pan.

“Silver.” I croaked. “So you want to kill me?”

The Creature smiled wide. It was a cruel, sinister smile. “Of course not my pet. I don’t want to kill you.” His face fell as his vampiric nature pulsed out in a great wave of dark animalistic energy. His white-blue eyes fixed hungrily on mine. “But I will make this hurt.”

And he did.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

Every inch of my body burned with need. The seconds that passed felt like hours as my skin prickled against every single thing I touched and sent a wave of pleasure to my core. Aside for the sedative Jack gave me outside of Parsons, I got no other rest. Every time I tried to close my eyes, I felt that vampire’s hands roaming down my skin, cupping my breasts, dipping into my wet core, and I couldn’t stand it. So I remained awake and on a knife’s edge of being desperately, desperately horny.

I had no shame either. Whenever someone came into the lab, I'd fantasized about what they’d do to me if I threw myself at them. Edward rarely came into the room, but when he did, I let my eyes rake along his strong body. He was built like Nate: tall and muscular. He also carried himself in a way that told me he’d be a rough lover but in the right kind of way. I imagined how he’d throw me onto the bed and control me. I’d be so good for him. I’d give him anything he wanted if he asked for it.

Jack, on the other hand, was clearly intelligent but he lacked the physical power that Edward had. No, for Jack to control me, he’d use intellect to do it. He’d coerce me, maybe blackmail me, and maybe trick me into giving him what he wanted. I’d struggle at first of course — I am a good girl — but eventually I’d give in and let Jack do whatever he wanted to me.

Nick came in to check on me only once. As soon as he walked through the sliding glass door, I jolted towards him and whimpered. “Nick, please let me go. I’m feeling better. Honest.”

He looked pained when he saw me, but I could make all of his anxiety and insecurities disappear if he’d just let me.

“Untie me Nick.” I said. “Please. My wrists are sore from the cuffs.”

He walked around the gurney I was strapped to but kept a respectful distance. His yellow eyes scanned over me while trying to maintain professional courtesy, but I saw the lust in his eyes. I saw how he discretely buttoned his trench coat. I could count the amount of times he swallowed on all of my fingers and toes after spending a mere ten minutes with me.

“You’re burning up still.” He murmured, mostly to himself. “Did Jack give you any more Med-X to help with the side effects?”

“Jack can’t give me what I want Nick.” I purred. “Only you can.”

Nick cleared his throat, “I doubt that’s true doll. You need rest and food. I’ll try and scrounge up something other than Cram or Sugar Bombs, meanwhile you should try and sleep.

“Niiiiick.” I whined. “Please don’t do this to me. You’re suppose to be my partner, my friend. I need you. Please.”

“Doll, it’s because I’m your friend that I’m keeping my distance. You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re drugged on vampire blood. You aren’t thinking clearly.” He said.

“This is the most clear-headed that I have been in a long time.” I countered. “And I’m tired of side stepping the elephant in the room. I want you Nick. I’ve wanted you the day I started my internship with City Hall. But you had Jenny and I had Nate. It wasn’t the right time. But now…” My voice trailed off and I swallowed thickly. “… but now there’s nothing stopping us.”

“Oh there’s plenty stopping us.” Nick said. His response came out slow and deliberate as though he was trying to convince himself as well. “I’m not human Nora. I’m a synth and I’m not even the latest version at that.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.”

“I’m too old for you.” He said. “Hell I’ve always been too old for you.”

“Age is just a number.” I replied breathily. “And I like older men. They have more experience.”

“Dammit Nora, it wouldn’t be right.” He clenched his fist and shuddered.

Synth or not, he still had a man’s desires and he was running out of reasons to stop me. I’m sure if I worked hard enough, I could slip my hands out from the leather straps and then slip my hands beneath his dress slacks.

“I know you want me. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Nick closed his eyes and gripped the stainless steel table near him. His arm trembled from the exertion but his jaw jutted out defiantly against my accusations.

“Tell me I’m wrong Nick!” I yelled. “Tell me you don’t want to fuck me. Tell me that you’ve never imagined how it would feel to have me beneath you, writhing and panting, like your own personal whore as you take me against your desk.”

“Jesus Nora! I can’t…not like this.” He choked out in a rushed breath. “This isn’t you, doll. The things you’re saying, you’ll regret them when you come to your senses. I’m trying to do right by you. I can’t give you what you want. I’m sorry.”

He pushed himself off the table and walked towards the door with his hands stuffed in his trench coat and his head bowed so I couldn’t read his expression from beneath his fedora.

“NICK!” I screamed. “NICK…PLEASE!”

But my cries fell on deaf ears as the automatic doors shut behind him and I was left alone in the laboratory as my arousal and desire threatened to burn me up from within.

* * *

  **Nick’s POV**

I exhaled the breath I had been holding and stumbled blindly into the bathroom next door. I rubbed myself outside of my slacks and bit my lip to keep myself from crying out. I was hard and aching and it was a feeling I had never experienced before in this body. Sure I’d get a twinge of arousal here and there when a diagnostic scan would playback a memory of Jenny and I together but those feelings were more like echoes of the past. This … this was real and visceral.

Nora was my partner, and aside for Piper, my closest friend in the Commonwealth. I had a responsibility to protect her, to teach her about the wasteland’s dangers, and to help her get acclimated to this new life. None of these duties required that I fuck her into the ground. But dear God I wanted to. The way she talked…God … she could drive a priest to abandon his vows of celibacy.

The sexual tension between us was something I was willing to ignore. Sure I could fantasize, but Nora deserved a far better lover than me. I couldn’t take advantage of her like this. She wasn’t in her right mind; it would be rape. There was no question about it. But what I wouldn’t give to throw my morals aside for just once and give in.

“Fuck…” I grumbled as I fumbled with my zipper and wrapped my hand around my cock. I closed my eyes and let Nora’s words from the last five minutes play back in my mind. The girl had a silver tongue while she was sober, but now, Nora was a vixen out of my own fantasies.

Lewd and erotic images flashed into my mind as I imagined what it would be like to be with Nora. I imagined that her low, sultry voice would sigh contentedly when I entered her. I’d go slow at first, maybe tease her a bit, and then I’d show her why it was a bad idea to taunt a detective. After all, she was cuffed to that hospital bed. She would be at my mercy.

“Oh God.”

My metal hand grabbed onto the porcelain sink in front of me as I pumped away into my other hand like a god damned teenager. My polymer skin was smooth but it lacked the warmth and wetness that I craved.

“Nora…” I whimpered. “God damn…”

Heat pooled in my stomach followed by delicious tension which swirled around the base of my cock.

I had no finesse in how I handled myself. My desire was purely instinctual and animalistic — well as instinctual and animalistic as a synth could get I suppose — and I disassociated myself from the actual act. I heard sounds of skin against skin, and I recalled what to do from memories courtesy of human Nick, but I was acting on autopilot. The only thing my conscious mind could focus on was Nora. Overwhelmingly feminine and gorgeous, brave, strong, and capable Nora.

The most maddening thing of all was that Nora knew the effect she had on men. She always knew. She wasn’t a blushing virgin but she also didn’t have the same promiscuous attitude many other wastelanders had. Nora knew what she was worth and she wouldn’t lower herself for a quick tryst. And yet she wanted me?

I shook my head as the rational part of my mind doused my fantasy with the truth. She was under the influence of a vampire’s blood which was having an aphrodisiac effect on her body. She wasn’t in her right mind. She would’ve propositioned Jack or Edward had they stayed in the room long enough. Hell…maybe she did.

But it didn’t matter.

She wanted me. Vampire blood or not, Nora wanted me in a way no one has wanted me in 150 years. The passion in her eyes, the raw desire that wracked her body, they were all for me.

My eyes rolled back and I gritted my teeth against the moan that tore from my throat. The tension behind my stomach broke and it was as though someone had cut the strings on a marionette. The heat that was building finally released and rushed towards my groin; I felt my legs give out, and I slumped between the door and the sink panting and gasping for air.

A knock came at the door, “You okay in there Valentine?”

I shuddered as aftershocks of my climax rolled through my body. When I released myself, I expected to find a mess that I’d have to hastily clean up but there was no ejaculate, no evidence of my misdeed. Thank God for small favors I guess.

“Nick?” Edward knocked again.

“I—I’m okay.” I gasped and quickly put myself back in order and zipped up my pants. “I —uh — something shorted out within me. It — its normal. It’s something that happens when you’re over a century outside the warranty.”

I hauled myself to my feet and flexed my fingers. They tingled as though they were both asleep. My mind felt fuzzy, almost like there was static in my brain, and I’d need to do a diagnostic scan soon to verify that I didn’t accidentally fry something important.

Edward cleared his throat. “Well when you’re ready, Jack wants to talk to you in his living quarters.

I unlocked the door and opened it. Edward met my eyes and I did everything in my power to not look away or telegraph the guilt I felt for having just jerked off in a bathroom while Nora was next door in mental and physical anguish.

He scrutinized me, “Jesus Valentine, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” I straightened my fedora. “Will … uh … Nora be okay in there by herself?”

“Jack’s going to monitor her for the time being. The vampire’s blood is counteracting the sedative we gave her, but we’re hoping she’ll eventually crash out of sheer exhaustion. He’s going to do a blood transfusion tomorrow to see if that will help with her symptoms. Otherwise the effects of the thrall should wear off once the blood runs through her system naturally.”

“And how long will that take?”

Edward shrugged, “Considering the dosage, I’d say three to six days. She’s a healthy adult so her body will cycle the blood in her body three times per minute. Eventually her body will use the tainted blood for physiological functions like breathing and the thrall’s effect will weaken until it’s finally gone.”

I cocked my eyebrow at him. “You sure know a lot about human biology for a ghoul.”

Edward gave me a rueful smile, “I was human once you know. And I’ve been living with Jack and his family for a long time. Jack is the most educated and talented doctor in the Commonwealth hands down. So I guess at some point his influence was gonna rub off on me.”

I picked up on Edward’s tone and how his strong, gravely voice became slightly smoky when he talked about Jack. I figured I’d take a shot in the dark.

“Uh … so you and Jack? Are you guys a couple or something?”

“Our personal affairs are our business.” He said cooly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” I replied. “The world’s gotten a lot less stringent about those Pre-War hangups. I just assumed, that’s all.”

“How about let’s keep the questions relevant to the issue at hand.” Edward replied. “C’mon.”

I followed Edward down the hallway and into the elevator. He pressed a silver button among at least thirteen others and the elevator began its long descent.

The elevator dinged and the cool announcer said something unintelligible amid crackling static as the doors opened. This corridor had the same stark, whitewashed decor but it looked a lot cleaner. Edward led me down the hallway and turned to the left down a small alcove where a singular grey door stood. He opened the door and led me inside.

“Have a seat.” Edward said and gestured to a couch. “I’ll tell Jack you’re here.”

He left the room and I sat on the loveseat and observed everything with a critical eye. We were in a large parlor complete with plush furniture, amber whiskey in a glass decanter on the coffee table, and bookshelf after bookshelf of pristine Pre-War novels. This type of decor must have taken decades to collect and restore. No place, especially not an abandoned insane asylum, would have furniture that looked as fresh as it had been in 2077.

Jack came into the room still wearing a stethoscope around his neck. Underneath the fluorescent lights I noticed the slight grey that peppered through his neatly combed black hair. Why hadn’t I noticed this before? Back at the Cabot House, I would’ve pegged his age at around thirty-five but my guess was off by a decade or so. Or maybe the fluorescent lights weren’t doing Jack’s complexion any favors.

“Nora is finally resting.” He told me. “Edward is with her now, and I’ll check on her in a couple of hours and start a transfusion. I’ve given her an IV to help facilitate her body’s natural functions, especially as she’s refusing food right now.”

“Thank you.” I said. “I appreciate you taking us in. I … we … were way outta our depths out there.”

“Yes. You were.” Jack’s shrewd eyes took measure of me. “Mister Valentine —“

“— You can call me Nick.” I interrupted. “I’m not here in a legal sense so let’s not stand on ceremony here.”

Jack nodded, “Nick, more than a decade ago I also thought that vampires only existed in the realm of Hollywood. But I’ve learned and I’ll answer whatever questions you may have, as best as I can, in hopes of leveling this playing field so to speak.”

Hollywood? Now that’s an interesting turn-of-phrase. I thought. Yep, something was definitely off about this guy.

“I guess my first question is why a vampire hanging around this area? Why not Vault 81 or around that Brotherhood airship that came to town a month ago? This area isn’t densely populated. A predator would try to hang around where the prey live.”

“This is personal for him.” Jack stated. “The Creature wants what he thinks we took from him.”

“And what is it that he wants?”

“Nora’s husband Nate.”

I sucked in air and swallowed my shock. There are tells when people lie. They might look away or fidget and their heart rate spikes so their face or neck might flush with blood. But Jack showed none of these tells. He looked me straight in the eyes and I believed him.

“Nate.” I stated. “You mean Dr. Nate Pendleton? How is that possible?”

“You tell me.” Jack replied.

Then just like that the key puzzle piece fell into place. Nora’s suspicion that Nate had left her for another woman hadn’t been true. He didn’t leave her, he was taken from her.

“That creature turned Nate into a vampire? When? How?”

“The when was October 22nd 2077, apparently mere hours after you and him parted company. The 'how' is a lot more complicated. His transformation is one of the few things that Nate doesn’t discuss but I can surmise that it involved the exchange of blood before the moment of death. That’s all I know.”

I mentally chewed on this information. Unlike Nora, it seemed that Nate had to take the long way through time by living through the bombs and the aftermath as a creature of the night.

“Okay.”

Jack cocked an eyebrow at me. “Okay? You’re taking this news rather well.”

I grimaced. “I’m a synth, bud. I woke up in a trash heap outside of the CIT with a patchwork of memories. I’ve had to roll with the punches. Nora though…this news, hell, it’s gonna shake her.”

Jack nodded. “I wish there was a better way to do this. I almost considered that you talk to Nate directly but he isn’t here right now.”

I noticed how Jack chewed on the words “isn’t here.” He wasn’t happy about that and it showed through his otherwise composed facade.

“Where did he go?”

“According to Edward’s report, he bartered his freedom for Nora’s life. He slipped out of Parsons while Edward and I were tending to you both.” Jack didn’t bother concealing his bitterness.

“How would he barter for his freedom? I sure as hell didn’t see anyone else out there.”

“He did it through the thrall.”

“Alright, what the hell is this thrall? I’ve heard that word several times today and I still don’t understand what it truly means.”

“Simply put, a thrall is connection to a vampire which is solidified through a blood exchange.” Jack replied.

“So it’s like a drug or like mind control?”

Jack frowned, “Yes and no. From our experience and from the meager studies I was able to do, it seems to be both. When a human consumes vampire blood, the enzymes in their body react as though they took ecstasy. Their serotonin receptors slow down and it makes them crave the source of the pleasure — in this case, the vampire they’ve drank from.”

“And when they can’t get to that vampire?”

“They will experience symptoms similar to a drug withdrawal. Unfortunately the symptoms will get worse before they get better, so I’d advise keeping your distance from Nora for a couple of days.”

“What the hell is the purpose of a thrall aside for some sick sexual perversion?” I snapped.

“This is coming directly from what Nate has told me when I asked him the same question.” Jack replied. “Vampires have two crucial weaknesses in which having the ability to put someone in your thrall ensures your survival. Just as Hollywood or popular media depicts, vampires cannot walk in the sunlight. In fact, much of the time a vampire experiences a semi-catatonic state soon after the sun rises. If a vampire is in direct sunlight for an extended period of time, their body begins to rapidly decay.”

“So they turn to ash?” I surmised.

“Not exactly. It’s more like the natural degradation process happens. A vampire’s body will begin to decompose because, in essence, they’re already dead. So that’s why vampires sometimes enthrall humans to do their bidding during the day or to keep watch over them when they are vulnerable. Then when they outlive their usefulness, they become that evening’s dinner.”

“And what’s the second weakness?” I asked.

“Silver.” Jack replied. “Even the smallest amounts can tear through a vampire’s body like acid. Something about how it interacts with their cellular structure creates a caustic chemical reaction.”

“So how has Nate been able to live here with you both? Working and living with a vampire puts the term ‘occupational hazard’ to a whole new level.”

Jack adjusted his glasses and frowned. “Edward has always been safer than me in this regard. Ghoul blood is toxic to vampires. They have far too much radiation in their blood. And as for me, I’ve developed a serum in which a natural side effect is that it makes my blood toxic to vampires as well so long as I take it with fidelity.”

I narrowed my eyes, “That’s the stuff Emogene was taking.”

Jack nodded, “Another unfortunate side effect is that long-term use of the serum becomes a sort of addiction. I’ve been able to control my urges and use it in moderation, but Emogene has always had a more addictive personality. After our mother passed, Emogene made the choice to cut herself off the serum cold turkey, but she underestimated how badly her body craved it.”

“Okay.” I replied. “So besides being a vampire repellant, what else does this serum of yours do?”

Jack opened his mouth to respond but closed it. He sighed and rose from his chair and I noticed that his hands were trembling. Maybe he wasn’t as in control as he thought.

“What I’m about to tell you must never leave this room.”

“I can’t make a promise like that.” I said evenly. “If this serum involves hurting innocent people, I can’t allow it to continue.”

“He’s not exactly innocent.” Jack spat and then he sighed. “Truthfully, its a rather long story. But here’s the short version. My father Lorenzo was an archeologist who found a lost city in Arabia. He recovered an artifact from the ruins of an extraterrestrial nature. That artifact, and its imbued power, twisted my father into a sociopathic monster. That’s why Parsons exists. My family founded this facility. We designed the entire place to keep my father from hurting anyone else.”

“So your father is here?” I asked.

“Ten more floors beneath our feet, yes.” Jack replied. “My mother refused to let anything bad happen to Lorenzo despite his atrocities, but eventually, the artifact’s power won out and poisoned everything that was once good in him. Nevertheless, mother refused to let Lorenzo be executed for his crimes and now he’s sat in a cell here as penitence for the disaster that he wrought. Before he went insane, he began studying a serum that could help a human being survive in even the harshest conditions. The serum I created was based on his past work. He synthesized the prototype from his own blood and tested it on himself…and then on me…unwillingly.”

“While on it, I’m immune to radiation damage. I’m more resilient and hardy. I haven’t gotten sick in many years, and …” He paused and then said, “… and the aging process halts”

“I beg your pardon? What d’you mean ‘halts’?”

“While on the serum, I do not age.” He stated. “I’m like a stone in a river. Time will pass around me but I will not physically change as long as I take the serum.”

“What happens if you stop?”

Jack licked his lips. “Then I will resume the natural course of aging, albeit much, much faster than normal. How old do I look to you?”

“Forty…maybe forty-five?”

Jack frowned and I wondered if I insulted his vanity. “Yes well now you can see the aging process in motion I suppose. When I first took the serum, I was 31 years old and I remained like that for the next four centuries.”

“Four centuries? So that would make you —“

“435 years old, give or take.” Jack replied.

Good God, I thought. Sure, my concept of time was relatively loose as I didn’t age in the conventional sense either, but to exist for almost four and a half centuries? As I processed the news, Edward’s heavy combat boots thundered down the linoleum hallway.

“JACK!” He roared.

Jack's attention snapped to the door, “Edward?! What’s wrong?”

The ghoul’s sallow face looked even more sickly when he stormed into the room. “It’s Nora. She’s gone.”

Both men took off down the hallway as though the hounds of Hell were chasing after them.

“What d’you mean she’s gone?” I called out as I raced after them. “She was tied to the god damned bed!”

“Do you think…?” Jack began.

“Yep.” Edward replied. “I gotta go and get her.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” I half yelled and half panted. “What the hell is going on? I thought Nate made a bargain with this bastard. Her life for his freedom.”

“He did.” Edward growled. “But the agreement was that the creature wouldn’t harm Nora. Nate made no such agreement regarding Nora’s safety.”

“And now he’s called Nora to him.” Jack said gravely. “Lucifer’s balls Edward. Nate … he’ll — he’ll kill her.”

“I’m coming with you.” I said.

Edward stopped so abruptly that I nearly crashed into him. “Like hell you are. You’re staying here.”

“No I’m not.”

Edward turned on me and got within two inches of my face. I could smell the Sugar Bombs that he had for dinner that evening. I saw the faint beads of sweat as they ran over the mottled and pockmarked skin on his face. It took everything within me to stand my ground. I was a detective, dammit. I wouldn’t be bullied by anyone, especially not when Nora’s life was at risk.

“You don’t understand.” He said savagely. “This isn’t a game. This vampire isn’t some back alley chem pusher you’re trying to nab. He’s a mercenary like me, and he has at least two centuries of experience ahead of my own. If you go out there half cocked and unprepared, he’ll strip you for parts faster than you can light a cigarette.”

After seeing the creature’s abilities a few hours ago, I knew Edward was right. But dammit, I had to at least try.

“If that’s how I’m gonna go, then fine. But Nora’s only here because of us. You could’ve left her well enough alone and hired some other average joe wannabe gun-for-hire to find Emogene. Hell, I could’ve dissuade her from this whole vampire theory from the start. But now she’s in trouble and I’m gonna get her whether you like it or not.”

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Just like that, the tension was broken between us.

“Prepare for the worst case scenario” Edward told Jack. “We need all hands on deck. Maria will need to post extra security outside and on the first floor just to be safe.”

“Do not let anyone down the main elevator without hearing from me first.” Edward said. “I’m overriding the access to the security room just in case.”

Jack nodded, “Be safe.”

“Always am.” Edward rumbled. “Let’s go Valentine.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heed the tags! This story has a decent amount of graphic violence and dubcon/noncon as a result of vampire thralls acting as aphrodisiacs to render a person incapable of sexual autonomy.
> 
> Well...here's the moment I've been waiting for: the initial Nate and Nora reunion.

**Chapter 13**

Nora’s POV

I was in a haze. I didn’t realize that I had escaped from Jack’s lab until the cold wind whipped at my face. A small voice, a compulsion, forced me to stumble my way up the rocky hillside. I _needed_ release.

The rational part of my mind screamed at me to stop and to turn back. Jack could help me sort through these intoxicating sensations. He’d make it stop, or give me some chems, or something dammit. But then again, all three of them had their chance and they all turned me away. I had no choice. _They_ gave me no choice.

Within a mile of Parsons, I saw an old barn sitting at the top of a hill. The thrall told me that this was the place.

Searchlights scanned the area and three armored raiders stood watch outside. I had no gun, and I had no armor, but that didn’t matter. I’d let every damn raider have their way with me if it meant the fire in my veins would finally stop.

“Who’s there?” One of them called out. She was a large blond woman who wore half her hair shaved to the scalp while the other side fell to her angular chin. Fire and hate filled her eyes as she trained her hefty assault rifle on me.

I rose my hands in surrender. “Don’t shoot! I’m not here for trouble.”

“If you’re here, then trouble is all you’re gonna get.” She replied in a harsh tone.

“Please. I need to speak with your leader. I — I _need_ … him.” I clenched my teeth together as a whirlwind of emotions and sensations fired through my body. I wanted to scream, cry, tear my hair out, and fuck the next person I saw. I felt insane, helpless, and scared.

The raider put her hand on her powerful hip and smirked at me. The hate in her eyes tempered into something more like cruel amusement as she realized why I was actually there.

“The master is busy, slut. Run along now. He’ll call for you again when he’s done conducting his business.”

Another raider, this one a man with caramel colored skin and hair that was twisted into dirty dark dreadlocks walked towards me and slipped his large hand into my pants, unbidden and unceremoniously. I was bare beneath my pants and he cupped my mound and inserted two fingers into me. My brain screamed at me that this wasn’t right. He was assaulting me, but I gasped and collapsed against him, moaning and canting my hips down onto his fingers so I was nearly fucking his hand.

“That’s right princess.” He growled. “Maybe we’ll have our fun with you before we give you to the boss.”

He withdrew his hand from my pants and wiped his two fingers, slick with my arousal, on my cheek. My hands flew to my brown leather jacket and I unzipped it and peeled it off my shoulders. I should’ve been wearing my vault suit. One pull of the zipper and I’d be completely bare before them.

The dreadlock man pulled out a knife and slid the metal over my shirt and across my aching nipples. I whimpered and his hand cupped my breast from over my shirt and squeezed.

“Damn woman. You’ve got some great tits. I can’t wait to see how my cock goes between them.”

The blond woman scoffed, “C’mon Steel, you’ve had your fun. Let’s get her to the boss. If she’s this needy, it means he called for her specifically. She’s so wet that I can smell her filthy cunt from here.”

The dreadlock man sneered, “Fuck him. I want a sample of the meat before it gets served up for dinner.”

A gunshot rang out and the left part of the raider’s head exploded splashing my face with blood and brain matter. His dark dreadlocks and skull fragments landed over my forearms and the man slumped against me. For a brief moment my arousal was replaced with utter terror as my scream caught in my throat. I stumbled to the side and dumped the man’s body to the ground. My shirt was covered in his blood which did even less to hide my breasts.

The blond woman lowered her weapon and gestured towards the barn with a sharp jerk of her head. “Get over here, nice and quiet like, and try to keep it in your pants until the master gets here.”

I walked towards her without question or complaint.  Her gaze was lecherous as she eyed up my bloody chest.

“I’ll be fucked. You do have some great tits.” She grunted.

I flushed from the twisted compliment, “W-why did you shoot him?”

Blondie scowled, clearly annoyed about something. “I’ve been instructed to kill anyone who disobey’s the master’s direct orders. It’s a shame Steel chose today to put his cock before his brain. C’mon.”

Now that the imminent danger had passed, I whimpered with renewed need as her large hand grabbed my bicep and dragged me towards the barn. Even her domineering touch made my heart race. I had never been attracted to women before but now none of that mattered. I needed release no matter who gave it to me.

Blondie holstered her weapon across her back and pulled me up the dirt path. The searchlights trilled and stayed on us as we approached the barn and it was then that I noticed the clear bite marks on her neck and shoulder. Was she also under this monster’s thrall?

“Trip!” She yelled out. “Where’s the boss?”

A freckled and dirty raider of an indeterminate gender peaked over the large wooden barricade and rumbled, “He’s flogging the traitor.”

“Still?!”

“They’re gonna be at it for a while.” Trip replied and then glancing at me added, “But I’d be willing to keep this one company while we wait for the boss to get done.”

“Save it.” She snapped. “You know the boss’s orders. No one touches what’s his.”

“I see Steel didn’t listen.” He nodded pointedly at my bloodstained appearance.

“I didn’t have a fuckin’ choice now did I?” She snarled. “Now go tell our boss that we have company. He’s gonna want to take a break anyway. I stopped hearing the crying hours ago. His back probably looks like a yao guai got to him.”

Trip grumbled something under his breath but then went across a gangplank, in between a tall sandbag barricade, and walked into the barn. The small hairs prickled up on the back of my neck and I felt my palms tingle from the adrenaline and fear.

Something told me that I wasn’t going to make it out of this. I was paralyzed by fear and by forces that I barely understood while Nick was back at Parsons none the wiser that I was gone. Of all of the harebrained decisions I had made since stepping out of the Vault, this one certainly took the cake.  I was going to die here.

I closed my eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths. The wild bubble of panic settled a bit in my stomach. As I tried to center myself, I heard the telltale sound of a cracking whip.

SNAP. SNAP. SNAP.

The blows couldn’t have been more than a second apart. After at least twenty more strikes the sound went silent.

“Bring her in.” The vampire’s cruel voice was sharp and cold.

The woman raider dragged me forward by my arm. I noticed that she was breathing out of her mouth and I wondered why, but then the scent of rotting flesh, feces, urine, and blood hit me like a tangible wall. My eyes watered and I swayed on my feet a little.

As she dragged me through the barn, I looked around to commit the details to memory. Nick had taught me how to be observant, to look at the situation from an objective and factual standpoint first and then unpack what I knew and what I didn’t and then begin to problem solve. The strategy was necessary when conducting investigations but it was also helpful in hairy situations where our lives were in danger.

First I noticed that the barn roof was partially collapsed and the hayloft had been repurposed into a sniper’s nest complete with sandbags to lay rifles on, military ammunition containers, and a first aid box. Second, the room’s dimensions were about 50 feet by 70 feet with the barn being longer than it was wide. Lastly, the shipping containers could be problematic if fighting broke out because they could conceal other raiders who were lying in ambush.  Of course, if fighting broke out I'd make a run for it out the back side of the barn.  There was a hole in the wall in the back right corner that looked just large enough for me to fit through.

Blondie pulled me around a rusted red shipping container and towards the darkened left corner of the barn where the roof was still intact. In the darkness I saw the faint glint of chains hanging from a pulley system. Several humans hung like macabre piñatas, and if I listened carefully, I could hear the steady drip of their blood hitting the ground.

The vampire stepped out of the shadows. He dumped a half of a canister of purified water over his hands and face and vigorously scrubbed the blood that stained his pale skin.

“Leave her here.” The vampire ordered. He dried the water with what looked to be an old t-shirt which he threw into Blondie’s face. She caught it, scowled, but said nothing else and marched back outside leaving me alone with him.

“Good evening Nora.” The creature purred. “How are you feeling, pet? Would you like some water?”

I eyed the half full canister in his hands and surpassed the urge to lick my lips. Suddenly I felt thirsty, really thirsty, and my mouth felt like I had swallowed sand.

“What do you want from me?” I rasped.

The vampire smirked and set the water down on the ground. “Why do my pets always such an inane questions? I always get the same variation. ‘What do you want from me? How dare you? Why are you doing this.’ It gets boring.”

He stalked up to me. I couldn’t pull my gaze away from his hazel eyes. I felt entranced like I was under a spell.

“I’ll allow you to ask me one more question.” He purred.

Thanks to his proximity to me, I saw that he was wearing something underneath his threadbare button-down shirt. It made the fabric ripple in odd ways, but thanks to my time working closely with the police, I knew what it was. He was wearing body armor beneath his shirt.

“Why does a vampire need a bullet proof vest?” I asked.

The creature’s blinked once and then laughed. It sounded more like a bark which made me think that he wasn’t all that amused.

“You are an observant pet.” He commented. “I wear it as an added precaution. I’m sure your friends will send someone after you once they realize you’re gone. I’d rather not get shot if I can help it.  Removing bullet fragments from my skin is such a tedious job.”

I felt something whisper past my ear and then I felt the vampire’s cold, strong hands grabbing my body from behind. He held my left shoulder and cupped my right hip. I gasped when he touched me. My skin prickled and my blood seemed to buzz in anticipation of what was to come.

“But now onto the main event." He rumbled. "You did a good job my pet. You came directly to me when I asked you to. I reward loyalty. Would you like to know your reward?”

I nodded emphatically as his cold hand slid from my shoulder and over my arm to slide beneath my shirt and cup my breast. His other hand undid the buttons on my pants. He made a purring sound in his throat like some sort of big cat and I wanted to hear nothing but that sound ever again.

The vampire murmured into my ear, “You are going to die now. That’s your reward Nora. You get to die in ecstasy while the rest of your little group suffers slow, agonizing deaths.”

My head swam from the thrall. I could almost taste the creature’s sadistic euphoria.

“Nate! Wake up!” He barked. “I need your help before we resume the punishment.”

He pushed me forward and into the darkness. As his dry, firm lips touched my throat, I exposed more of my neck to him. I didn’t care about dying. I wanted him to bite me, to feed from me. He was my master and I was his servant. I wanted to feel the pain and the euphoric rush of emotions and the tension running through his body. I wanted release. And if I died to achieve that…well then so be it.

The creature’s tongue laved across my pulse point and I saw stars. My breath left my lungs and my legs collapsed beneath me, but he held me up as though I was a small child. I panted for air while clawing at his back.  I was so damn close to climaxing.  My body hummed with pent up energy as I sat on the precipice of release.

“Please.” I begged. All of my shame and pride had left me. “Please bite me. I need it.”

A strangled voice croaked out from the darkness, “Nora…NO!”

The vampire chuckled. His tongue laved against my neck and his fangs scraped across my skin like twin knife points. I sobbed and writhed in his grasp.

“Say it a little louder Nora.” He purred. “What do you want me to do?”

“Please!” I sobbed. “Bite me! Fuck me! Make this stop. I am burning up inside.”

The monster’s hand closed around the front of my throat and applied a steady pressure against my windpipe while his other hand slipped down my pants and stroked my sopping core.

“STOP!” The voice from the darkness roared. “WE HAD AN AGREEMENT YOU BASTARD”

I heard chains rattling and then I saw a form staggering through the darkness towards me. He was tall but stooped. His dark hair hung around his pale, angular face in an unkempt mess. He stumbled forward and fell onto his hands and knees and I gasped. His back was torn to shreds. Blood oozed out of the massive flayed flesh on his back and I wondered how he could even survive that sort of torture let alone be conscious through it.

My vision doubled, my hearing dimmed, and I collapsed against the vampire as the rush of my oxygen deprived orgasm flooded through my body like molten lava. The world slowed down and went greyscale just in time to realize that the tortured man was actually my husband.

Nate had survived.

We locked eyes just as mine rolled back into my head.

Then darkness consumed me.

* * *

The first sensation to come back to me was that my body was swaying slowly in the air. It was pretty disconcerting, actually. The second sensation that soon followed was the horrible pain from my bruised neck. Each breath felt like agony as my breath came into my chest with a rasping and sickly wheeze.

When I glanced up, I saw that my hands were bound by a thick metal chain and I was hanging from a meat hook. I also realized that I was completely naked. Strangely, the fear of being naked while hanging on a meat hook was far more concerning than the building pain in my hands. I needed to get out of here and quickly.

“Hello?” I croaked.

Something large moved on my right and whatever it was it made a wet sniffing sound.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I tried again, my voice gaining strength as I took in more agonizing breaths. “Nate? Is that you?”

The sniffing grew more insistent and then I heard a hungry growl. My husband crawled out of the shadows. He had been tortured some more. In addition to his ruined back, the creature directed some of his lashes to Nate’s chest, thighs, and buttocks. Dark red, almost black blood pooled from his ruined flesh but it didn’t drip like normal.  It looked congealed like molasses.

“Nora…” He wheezed as he struggled to get to his feet.

“Nate?! Jesus Christ I thought you were dead. I thought the bombs got you — and — and Shaun and I went to the Vault but we — God what happened to you Nate? What did that monster do to you?” I was babbling and a small part of me wondered if this was just some fucked up dream ... or nightmare.  Or maybe I did die and this was heaven...or more likely Hell.

Nate staggered forward then collapsed again. A beam of pale light fell across his face and I saw that the man before me looked exactly like the vampire. Nate was like him…like the monster.

His eyes weren’t their natural warm brown, they were a startling white-silver color and they held a look of pure hunger and anguish. His strong jaw clenched and the muscles in his neck bulged from physical exertion. His face was gaunt and red and blue veins popped out from his corpse-like skin which gave him a demonic visage. His lips were stained with something dark and his lower jaw spasmed like he was biting or about to bite something.

“Nora…” He rasped and clawed closer to me. “I’m so sorry. I — I can’t control it. I can’t control ... myself. I tried to save you but I fucked it up.  You were never suppose to be here and now ... now you will die.”

The shift was sudden.  The hunger in his eyes overshadowed the human guilt and pain he expressed, and now whatever was left of my husband in this creature’s body had died away. I was now facing a predator, a hunter.

“Stay away from me!” I screamed. “Get the fuck away from me!”

Nate snarled and bared his fangs at me. Its clawed hands reached out to grab my bare leg but I kicked at him with my heel.

“I—I need to feed.” He hissed in a snake-like tone. “Don’t fight me Nora. I’ll make it quick. Painless even.”

A shiver ran down my spine when he said my name. I almost wanted to believe him. I wanted to hold him in my arms again. I wanted to press myself against his strong, hard body and breathe him in. I shook those thoughts from my head. No! This thing wasn’t my husband. It may look like Nate but I knew that it was merely a monster wearing my husband’s face. My husband had never looked at me like this, like I was some sort of T-bone steak on the grill, and he sure as hell had never tried to attack me before…or drink my blood.

“Get the fuck away from me.” I snarled. The nerve-searing arousal I had previously felt was replaced with blind rage.

“DON’T. FIGHT.” Nate snarled.  He jumped from his crouch like a pouncing cat and knocked into me. I felt his talons slice across my outer hip. I screamed, rotated away from him, and then kicked him squarely in the stomach to knock him off me. My blood looked abnormally bright amid this dingy and decrepit barn and I watched in horror and fascination as the wet heat of my blood dripped down my naked thigh.

His nostrils flared at the scent and then he looked at his blood-stained hands. His pupils receded until his eyes looked mostly white. They shone in the low light like a cat’s while he licked my blood off his hand.

“Oh Nora.” He moaned like a drug addict who had just had a hit after years of sobriety. “You have no idea how good you taste.”

Somehow my blood was giving him strength back. He rose to his full height while he cleaned the blood off his hand like a cat cleaning itself. As he did, I saw the more minor wounds across his chest heal themselves.

As he walked towards me, I also noticed that my blood had made him aroused. My own thrall-induced neediness was back and I shuddered in anticipation. God damn woman, get a grip on yourself!

I wriggled like a worm on a hook hoping to dislodge the chain so I could fall to the ground but it was no use. Nate’s strong, cold hands touched my shoulders. He looked me up and down and with such intensity that I saw the hints of my husband beneath the monster’s face.

His eyes phased a light brown for a moment and the engorged veins in his face receded.  Tears slid down his cheeks. “I’m sorry, Nora.”

The switch back to the creature happened instantaneously as his sharp talon sliced across my collar bone. I hissed and then I saw my blood well up and run down my cleavage. Nate’s eyes honed in on the wound and he bent down to lapped up the blood.  As he did, his hardness pressed against me. He trailed his tongue between my breasts and each bit of blood he drank brought a little color back to his pale face.

He nuzzled against me and cupped my ass with his other hand. “You taste so good."

I barely had time to register what he had said when I felt his fangs puncture through my flesh and I screamed. Lights exploded behind my eyes. My core clenched around the uncomfortable emptiness and I felt all of the air escape my lungs.

I heard Nate's unabashedly aroused groan and he deepened the bite.  The suction from his lips drew my own orgasm from me.  I grabbed onto Nate's cold flesh and wrapped my legs around his waist as I cried out.  I barely felt him bite into me a third time. My head swam and my body was beginning to feel cold.  My thoughts felt sluggish.  It was time for me to sleep.

Through the fog, I heard a furious voice roar out, “LEAVE HER ALONE!”

Nate bared his fangs at the intruder and let me go. I swung back on the chain like dead weight.  I watched the action with glazed eyes, barely seeing anything as I fought to stay conscious. Nate rushed Nick. The sharp bark of Nick’s pistol cut through my haze and I heard Nate groan once more and then I heard a heavy thud as he hit the ground howling like a wounded animal.

Footsteps thundered towards me.  A smooth, synthetic hand cupped my face and touched the bite wound which drew a pained whimper from my throat.

“Nora! Nora, doll. Talk to me.” Nick’s voice sounded slow and warped. “Hang in there doll. Don’t go dark on me yet. Talk to me. C’mon.”

He shot the chain that I was bound to and caught me when I fell like a sack of tatos to the ground. Nick shirked off his trench coat, helped me into it, and cinched the belt closed.

“Edward!” Nick growled as he pressed a handkerchief to my neck. “He’s taken a lot of her blood. She’s not lookin’ good. Her heartbeat is too rapid and too light.”

“God—dammit—wrap her wound—with a — tourniquet and carry her out.” He snarled in broken sentences as he traded blows with Nate.  They looked like boxers or wrestlers: one in red and one in white.  I closed my eyes once and heard Edward groan in pain as Nate's talons cut through his flesh.

I felt Nick tie a bandage around my neck and cinch it. The bruising on my throat sharpened the pain and I was pulled out of the ether.

“Nick!” I wailed. “My neck…it’s bruised. It hurts.”

“I know, doll. But its either that or bleeding out here. Edward, what’s the plan?!”

“Bring her back to Jack.” Edward snarled. Now he was on top of Nate and had the vampire’s arms and legs tied together like a roped steer. “I gotta get Nate settled down here and somewhat healed before he gets close to you guys again. We need to get back to Parsons quickly!  Sunrise is thirty minutes away and Nate...he can't be outside for much longer and I ain't gonna let him stay here.”

Nick nodded and then he carried me outside without another word. Outside the barn looked like a war zone. The spotlights sat in smoking ruins and a turret near the door had exploded into pieces of shrapnel and scrap. The blond female raider looked up at me with dead, cold eyes. Her chest sported a gaping wound courtesy of a point blank shotgun blast. The other raider named Trip hung with his back broken across the piled sandbags that blocked the barn’s entrance. But the oddest thing about the aftermath was that two raiders were handcuffed to metal spiked poles that were erected near a dilapidated shack and they were still alive.

“Why aren’t they dead?” I croaked.

Nick’s expression darkened, “It was Edward's idea. These two raiders are the least tarnished…that is to say…they have the lowest amount of radiation in their bloodstream. He plans to feed them to …”

His voice faltered and he looked at me warily.

“Nate.” I finished for him. “Nate survived the bombs because he was a vampire.”

Nick nodded. “Are you okay?”

“No.” I leaned into Nick’s chest as tears slid down my dirty, bloodstained face.

“I’m sorry, doll.”

I tried to look into Nick’s eyes but my neck ached in protest. The muscles around my windpipe were beginning to stiffen into a painful tightness which stretched from my shoulder to the base of my head.

“What happens when Edward brings … him … back?” I couldn’t say my husband’s name aloud. His name burned like acid on my tongue and I swallowed it back down hoping I could swallow some of the anger and sadness as well.

“I guess it all depends on what you want Nora. Maybe it would do you good to get some closure, or maybe seeing him like that is just opening an old wound. It’s your call. I’ll be there no matter what you decide.  But first, I'm making sure Jack fixes you up.  You need rest Nora."

As we descended the trail which would take us to Parsons, I saw the faint glow of orange in the eastern horizon. With the rise of the sun, the connection between that creature and me started to wane a little.  Nick was right.  I needed rest. I was exhausted and lucky to be alive.

“Nick?” I croaked.

“Hmm?”

A horrified shudder tore through my throat as the words that I wanted to say failed me. The man I had been married to for the better part of five years, the man whom I once loved more than myself, the man who gave me a son and who did his best to provide for his family, that man was now a monster.

I pressed my face into Nick’s chest. His cotton button down shirt and loosely done tie were soiled with blood, his coolant, and God knows what else, but I didn’t care. My grip tightened around Nick’s neck and I sobbed like a baby.

I sobbed two words, “Oh God,” over and over again as the pain I had blocked up in my heart broke loose and tore through me. Nick never stopped walking but he did rub his hand over my shoulders in a soothing circular motion.

After I had cried myself out in Nick’s arms, as the blood loss and exhaustion overtook me. I passed out with my head resting against his chest. But before I gave myself over to blissful unconsciousness, I felt Nick’s dry, thin lips brush across my forehead in a feather light kiss.

"I'm here, doll.  Don't worry."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 13 and 14 were one document but I really wanted the previous chapter to focus only on Nora's POV so I split it up. Here's the missing pieces as to how the aftermath of Ch 13 went down.
> 
> The last chapter was heavy in terms of the content but this one has all the feels and angst. Enjoy.

**Edward’s POV**

I rubbed my jaw and heard the small bones in the joints crack and pop. Nate had gotten a lucky hit in and he was strong. God was he strong.

“Let me go!” He snarled.

He clawed out at me and slashed across my leg. Part of the blow glanced off the combat armor I wore but the rest of the swipe connected with the muscle in the back of my leg damn near hamstringing me. I collapsed to one knee and growled back at him.

If that was how Nate wanted to play it then so be it.

Adrenaline and two and a half centuries of para-military training surged into my mind blocking out the pain in my leg and Nora’s cries. Nick would see to her. I had bigger fish to fry.

I rushed at Nate and my shoulder hit below his hips. He was a big man — tall and solidly built — but I had over thirty pounds on him. He went up and over my shoulder while I straightened my back like a fulcrum and slammed Nate down on his back.

The sound he made was awful; he shrieked a throaty roar like a feral ghoul. He took the full force of the blow on his back where damn near half of his skin had been cut to ribbons. The pain he felt distracted him just long enough for me to hogtie him.

However the pain didn’t keep him distracted for long and he thrashed against the bonds. Nick barked out a question at me and I barely got out my response as I kept my weight on Nate to prevent him from escaping.

The synth nodded when I told him the plan and carried Nora out in his arms. The poor woman’s skin was ashen with a twinge of blue which indicated that in addition to severe blood loss she was also dealing with hypothermia. Nate jostled again and writhed like a snake. I kept my hands away from his face; he wouldn’t drink from me but he wasn’t above biting me. The rope around his wrists and ankles frayed a little from the stress of holding him, and I knew I had to do something more substantial. If he broke free, he could easily catch up to Nick and Nora and finish the job.

“You don’t want this Nate.” Although it came out as an out of breath growl. I kept my voice soft and low and (hopefully) somewhat soothing. I scooted off of him just long enough to pick up the ten foot chain that had been connected to Nora, and I wrapped the length around Nate’s torso and legs. Just as I did, the rope holding him exploded into shreds of fiber.

The racket he made was unnerving. If I hadn’t personally killed the five raiders who were on post, I would’ve been afraid they’d all come running in as backup. Although the backup was still a possibility as I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of ‘daddy.’

“This is gonna hurt me way more than it’ll hurt you Nate.” I growled.

With my hefty rifle, I jammed the stock down on the vertebrae at the base of his skull. It snapped like a chicken bone and Nate’s body went limp. I broke his neck.

“Sorry kid.” I murmured. I brought a tarp with and spread it out on the ground. We wouldn’t make it back to Parson’s before sunrise but I’d be damned if I let Nate stay here until sundown.

I rolled his body onto the tarp, wrapped the canvas around his body, and tied everything together with the rest of the rope that he hadn’t managed to bust out of. Nate told us vague details about what sunlight did to vampires. It sped up the rate of their blood lust, it made their cells degenerate at an exponential rate, and it allowed for decay to resume. What he never explained was whether a tarp would provide suitable protection, because if not, Nate might actually face a more permanent death.

I holstered my rifle, withdrew my .44 magnum as insurance against anyone who might get in my way, and heaved Nate onto my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I was within five steps of the doorway when a figure rushed me from the darkness and slammed into us. I heard an audible pop as my shoulder dislocated. A rush of breath stealing pain tore through my chest, but I pushed the pain down

I aimed my gun into the darkness as a blurred shape in the vague shape of a man came at me with his fangs barred. My gun fired twice; I don’t even remember pulling the trigger and the creature changed its direction and went off to the left and back into the darkness.

I tried to drag Nate backwards by grabbing him with my left hand but the slightest movement sent my vision spinning from the pain. I could switch hands but that also meant that I’d have to holster my gun to do so which would leave me open to the creature’s next attack.

“Leave Nathan here and escape with your life.” The creature hissed from the darkness.

“I’m a greedy bastard. I’d rather have my cake and eat it too.” I gritted out.

The creature came at me again. I would’ve missed him if I hadn’t seen a flash of movement out of my peripheral vision. I spun to my left and fired at him. I heard the shots connect as dull thuds but I didn’t hear a cry of pain.

Son of a bitch. He was wearing a kevlar vest. Where in the hell had he found one of them?

“I will ask this of you only one more time.” He said in a dangerously calm voice. “Leave Nathan behind and escape with your life.”

He stopped just short of a thick sunbeam that fell through the broken ceiling, and it was the first time that I ever got a good look at the bastard’s face. Something about him looked familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

“Choose now.” The creature hissed.

Two more shots rang out, and this time, dark red blood exploded out from the creature’s neck and the side of his temple. His body collapsed like a sack of tatos, but the expression on his face was one of utter fury. He wouldn’t be down for long.

“Move.” Nick’s voice hissed as he dragged Nate’s body out into the morning sunlight.

I scrambled backward and felt the sun’s warmth on the back of my neck. I got to my feet and limped after Nick but I stumbled into a pile of sandbags. My leg and my shoulder screamed at me to stop and so I propped my back up against the sandbags while keeping a steady eye on the barn.

“We gotta go Deegan.” Nick growled. “Nora’s just down the hill. I don’t wanna keep her there too long. She’s in rough shape.”

“Yeah well I can’t fuckin’ move until I patch my leg up and fix my dislocated shoulder. It’ll go faster if you help me.”

“What do you need me to do?” He asked impatiently.

“Grab a stim from my bag and give it to me. I also need a hand popping my fucking shoulder back into place.”

Nick did what I asked without complaint. I didn’t know the synth that well but I wouldn’t have blamed him if he dragged Nate back down the hill and left me behind. I was injured and a liability, and we were in the middle of a war zone.

He injected the stim into my hamstring muscle through my tattered pants. I felt the cooling effects of the medicine knitting the injured flesh back together. The shoulder, however, would be far less pleasant. I went to lay on my back and forced myself to take slow, long breaths.

“Grab my wrist with both hands and keep my palm up. Then slowly but firmly raise and lower my arm like you’re pumping up something small. Rotate the joint back into place, and I’ll let you know when it’s in.”

Nick frowned but did as I asked. I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. Sweat dripped down my face as the intense, pulsing heat from my shoulder radiated out to my fingers. The worst of the pain was when he began moving my arm. My other hand clawed at the dirt and I let out a scream so loud that I saw birds take flight from a nearby tree. Then suddenly the worst of the pain vanished and I choked out, “Alright, alright. That’s good.”

I kept my injured arm folded across my chest and tried to not move the joint any more than I had to. Jack would have to put it in a sling when I got back.

Nick helped me to my feet. I swayed slightly but stayed upright. Nick carried Nate’s body with far more ease and grace than I could ever manage thanks to his synth strength and we descended the hill and went down the trail at a teeth-chattering jog.

I’d send Maria and a couple of her mercs up here to collect the two raiders I tied up. Jack would raise holy hell if he knew what I was doing, but I didn’t care. When Nate healed up enough from the broken neck, he’d have a lot of bubbling guilt, anger, and hunger to deal with. Best let him work that out on the reprehensible scum of the world rather than let it fester like an open wound.

Thankfully Nora was able to walk on her own now that she had a chance to get her wits about her. She didn’t look good and she had wounds of her own that Jack would need to look at, but I saw a defiant fire in her eyes. She wasn’t going down without a fight and I respect her for that.

So there we were: a vampire, a ghoul, a synth, and a Vault Dweller walking back to an old insane asylum.

Damn, that sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

* * *

**Jack’s POV**

I set my glasses on the desk and massaged my temples. Nearly a week had passed since the whole fiasco up at Parsons Creamery. It took Nate a mere two days of blood infusions from the two men Edward brought back for the worst of his injuries to heal, but it would take him far longer to heal emotionally.

I decided it was prudent to put him in one of our observation cells where concrete and plexiglass could block out the worst of Nora’s scent. But I didn’t account for my scent. When I went in to check on him, he threw himself against the door that I was about to unlock. He ran into it so hard that he put a dent the size of his shoulder into the stainless steel.

Now I really had no other option. I pulled out a metal briefcase and opened the lid. Six vials of the serum sat in individually cut slits in the black foam cushioning and protecting it. I withdrew one vial, injected a syringe into the top of it and withdrew 20ccs of the serum -- all of it -- and put the empty canister back where it once sat.

I rolled up my left sleeve, tied surgical tubing around my bicep, and found my vein. With practiced efficiency, I inserted the needle and dispensed the plunger. I sighed in relief as soon as the substance entered my bloodstream. God, it felt good. Strength returned back to my muscles and limbs. The random aches and pains that were starting to annoy me vanished, and I felt like I had just injected myself with pure caffeine.

“Jack?” Edward called down the hallway.

I withdrew the needle and I slid the briefcase containing the serum behind my desk. My face flushed from fear of being caught and I hastily disassembled the syringe and threw it into a plastic bin to be sanitized later.

“Jack?” Edward’s voice was closer.

“I'm here.” I called out.

I didn’t know why I felt ashamed. Maybe it was because of the serum’s addictiveness. I thought that I could be better than my sister, outlast her, and prove to us both that we didn’t need the serum. But as soon as I entertained that idea I saw the folly in it. I was going to be 418 this year. The serum had provided me with almost six lifetimes of existence. At this point, I needed this serum as much as Nate needed blood.

Edward entered the room. His arm was still in a white cloth sling but he was finally walking without any pain.

“Nora’s awake.” He rumbled. “She’s asking to see Nate. I’ve given her his journal which more or less summarizes his condition, but she wants to talk to him in person.”

I scowled. The last thing Nate needed right now was to be interrogated by his former wife whom he savagely brutalized while he was out of his mind in bloodlust.

"She is refusing to go back to Diamond City without talking to him first." He said.

“He’s not ready for that Edward.” I replied. “He’s physically healed but he’s harboring extreme guilt and grief over what happened.”

“Maybe it would do him some good to see her. If he sees that she’s alive and recuperating, he might get some needed closure and relief.

Dammit. Edward was right.

“I’ll go in and talk with him first.” I said. “That way he can prepare himself. But if he refuses, I’m not going to make him talk with her. Please tell her that.” I said.

Edward nodded. “D’you want me to go with you as back up? Nate didn't respond well to your scent last time.”

I shook my head. “It won't be an issue.” I replied briskly.

Edward scrutinized me. “You took the serum again.”  It wasn't a question.

My face flushed and I couldn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t really have a choice right now.”

Edward nodded in understanding. “No. You really don’t.”

But that was the problem. Edward didn’t understand, not truly, because I didn’t have the heart to explain it to him. The five vials of serum that I had left were the last five vials in my possession. My father refused to give me more. The stubborn bastard couldn’t kill me as a young man, so he’s determined to outlive me through supernatural means. The serum’s effects only lasted three days until the nagging withdrawal symptoms set in. I begin feeling the effects of the aging process a few days after that. Five vials could conceivably last me 5 to 7 weeks. After that...well…

“You okay Jack?”

I met Edward’s eyes but I masked my expression, “Yeah. I’m just worried about Nate.”

“Well let’s go together and check on him. He needs a serious morale boost after all this shit.”

I got up from the desk and gathered a handful of our research notes about his vampirism and finding a potential cure. “Grab that microscope and bring it with.” I told Edward. “Nate might appreciate a little bit of a distraction to take his mind off things.

Edward nodded. He grabbed the microscope and the box of blood samples I had rescued from the lab when everything went to hell, and followed me out of our living quarters.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

Nick wheeled me down the dark hallway while Jack followed behind us like a phantom. None of us talked. Our collective mood was somber and slightly scared.

When I woke up, I discovered that a week had passed. Nick traveled to the agency twice to tackle quick cases, file some paperwork, and check in with Ellie. He assured me that he only traveled while it was still daylight and he was constantly aware of his surroundings as he traveled.

“Let me go in there first and speak with him.” Jack said and then he looked at me. “Please don’t take it personally if he doesn’t want to see you. He’s in … a very delicate mental state right now.”

I scowled at the man. Nate was my husband, dammit. I was the one who sat up with him as he had nightmares of his troops dying on the battlefield. I encouraged him to contact the VA to talk to a therapist when he first got back. I was very familiar with Nate’s ‘delicate mental state.’

Nick cleared his throat. “We’ll follow your lead then Doc.”

Jack nodded and then rounded the corner. I craned my head to look at Nick which was quite the feat as the entire right side of my neck was covered with stiff bandages.

“We’ll follow your lead Doc?” I repeated. I didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in my voice.

Nick frowned but kept his voice low, “Nora, he’s not your husband anymore. This Nate is … has changed. Jack and Edward have spent a decade more with him than you have, and they’re more familiar with Nate’s volatile condition. We gotta listen to their judgement here.”

“You’d be just as pissed if this was Jenny.” I snapped.

Nick stiffened but said nothing. I sighed, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He replied. “You’re right. I would be just as pissed, but I’d also want what was best for her, even if that meant that I wasn’t in the picture.”

Jack came back around the corner adjusting his glasses. I couldn’t accurately read his expression in the darkness so I looked at him expectantly.

“He says he’ll talk for a few minutes, but only with Nora.”

My heart thudded in excitement and anxiety. I partially expected him to turn us away.

“Will I be safe?” I asked.

Jack nodded, “Oh yes. Edward put him in one of the few maximum security cells that survived when the west wing collapsed. He was here during the first eighteen months as he acclimated to human life; he was rather … wild … when we first met him. The cell is contained within a larger holding cell so it’s impossible for him to smell you unless you make it a point to stand right next to his door. You will communicate with him through a PA system that I set up.”

“If there’s any issues, you just holler for us and we’ll be there.” Nick said.

I nodded and exhaled. “I’m ready.”

Jack took my wheelchair from Nick and brought me down the corridor and into an observation room of sorts. To my right, there was a viewing window similar to the thick plexiglass windows that walled animals off from guests at a zoo. The interior cell was set up to be a small bedroom. The gap between the interior cell’s plexiglass window and my window was no more than a few inches but the added layer of protection was still welcome nonetheless.

“Speak into the receiver and Nate will be able to respond just by talking aloud. There are small microphones in the room to pick up his voice. Remember to keep your questions short and to the point, and try to not judge him too much. He is pretty torn up about what he did.”

“Thank you.” I said.

He nodded, “And remember, if you need us we’ll be right around the corner.”

Before Jack left, he flicked on two silver switches and then handed me a black telephone connected to a metal encased wire. The setup looked very similar to the visitation rooms in the Massachusetts State Penitentiary in Quincy. As a novice lawyer, sometimes my clients would be incarcerated there.

“Nate?” I asked. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.” His voice sounded emotionless and tired.

Nate was lying on his back on a cot. The sheets beneath him were made up and pulled tight like he was taught in the military. He stared at the ceiling. His face was void of emotion, and if he hadn’t been breathing and talking to me, I would’ve thought that he was truly dead.

“H--how are you?” God damn that was a dumb question. “I mean...how is your back doing? I--is it healing alright?”

“I am nearly fully healed thanks to you.” He murmured darkly.

“Well...I’m glad I could help.”

A disgusted laugh tore from his throat, “Right...help. You didn’t exactly have a choice.”

“Neither did you.” I countered. “I -- I still don’t understand a lot about what’s happening, but --”

“-- How are you here?” He interrupted. “Wasn’t Vault 111 suppose to open after 100 days of receiving an ‘all-clear’ from Vault Tec? You should be long dead.”

I frowned, “You really don’t know?”

He turned his head to stare at me. I resisted the urge to flinch. His predatory eyes were brown, like my husband’s, but his face was severe and angular.  The monster sat just beneath the surface.

“Jack told me that the Vault was an experience in cryogenics.” Nate said. “Is that true?”

I nodded. “When the bombs fell, I took Shaun and ran to the Vault. God, I was so scared Nate. They rushed us through the intake process and had us stand in ‘decontamination’ chambers...then…” My voice trailed off as I relived that horrible moment in my head.

“How’s Shaun doing?” He asked.

I stared at him for a long moment, unsure of what to say, and I saw grief flash across his face. “Jesus Nora. I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head and blinked tears from my eyes, “I don’t know if he’s dead. That’s what Nick and I are trying to find out. H--He’s been kidnapped. A merc named Kellogg broke into the Vault about ten years ago. He took Shaun and re-froze me. I managed to track Kellogg down but then we hit a roadblock.”

Nate swung his long legs off his bed and walked to the observation window. Seeing him move was alluring and terrifying. It was like he knew he wasn’t human and didn’t bother hiding it. There was no awkward jerkiness that often accompanied how he moved. I mean, when you’re a 6’2” tall man who weighed maybe 175 pounds on a good day, you couldn’t exactly say you were naturally graceful.

“Who’s ‘we’”?

“Nick Valentine.” I replied. “Well...almost him. The memories from the Nick we knew were transplanted into the body of a Gen-2 synth but he gets confused sometimes. He’s been working as a detective out of Diamond City for at least half a century. He managed to hack Kellogg’s terminal to discover that Shaun was taken by the Institute.”

Nate’s face darkened. His voice was calm but dangerous, “And where’s this Kellogg now?”

“Dead. I killed him” I said, my own anger bubbling in my gut as I thought back to his taunts and his arrogance. The bastard had a cocky grin on his face right until I pulled the trigger.

Nate smiled at that and I noticed that his teeth were normal and fang-less. “I’m glad I insisted you come to the shooting range with me.”

I chuckled, “Yeah. You have no idea how many times that has saved my life out here.”

A moment of silence fell between us and Nate’s eyes fell on the wheelchair. “What did I do to you?”

“Jack says that I went into hypovolemic shock. He’s been keeping me on an IV and extra fluids. But he also said there wouldn’t be permanent damage.”

Nate shook his head, “I’m so sorry Nora. I -- I never wanted you to see me like that.”

“What happened Nate? How did you become … a vampire?”

A sob tore at him and he turned away from me so all I could see was his bare shoulders and his back.  Half a dozen long red scars marred his pale skin, but at least it was a far cry from the disaster it use to be.

“I cut through an alleyway to make it to catch the last train. He attacked me there. I--I thought he was going to kill me, but by the end of it, I wanted him to. He threatened your life...he-he threatened Shaun’s life. And I --”

Nate’s shoulder’s heaved as he sobbed. They were the kind of chest heaving sobs that felt physically painful as well. They were the same type of sobs that he had when he came home from Anchorage -- sobs filled with guilt, regret, and fear.

I clutched the phone, “Nate, baby. What happened to you wasn’t your fault. He attacked you. You had no choice. I -- I’m sorry that I had no idea. You didn’t deserve this.”

“Maybe I did.” He croaked.  His long arms held himself around the middle and turned to face me again, “ Maybe this is penitence for Anchorage...for what I had to do out there.”

I bit my lip. Nate had never used language like “penitence” unironically before. He was a devout atheist. And I also had never heard him talk about Anchorage before. At least not with me. He spoke about the nightmares in vague terms only, and in some cases I was sure he lied about them.

“I doubt that’s true.” I said, but I honestly had no idea. My words rang hollow.

He growled and the sound was animalistic and feral, “I was a monster. I was ruthless Nora. Those awards, those medals, those fucking pins were for killing boys who were fighting a war they knew nothing but what they were taught...the bullshit their country indoctrinated them with. Now the outside just matches the inside I suppose.”

“You’re not a monster Nate.” I said. But he ignored me and continued speakings slowly and deliberately. 

“No decent man assaults their abducted, bound, and naked wife, and then ruts against her and tears into her throat like some fucking animal. Jesus, I was so damn close to killing you Nora. If Nick hadn’t stopped me, I would have.  I would have torn your throat out and drank from you until you died in my arms.”

He said that with such conviction that a primal shiver went down my spine. He was right. He would’ve killed me.

We stared at each other in silence. I really took in Nate’s appearance now that he was standing a mere six feet from me, plexiglass window notwithstanding. Nate was shirtless, and besides the small amount scarring on his shoulders where the worst lacerations were, his chest was unmarred and flawless. The handful of scars that use to mark his body had all disappeared. He had an especially gnarly one on his hand from a dog bite when he was a kid, but now his skin was smoothed and unblemished. His hair was longer than I was used to and his eyes held a perpetually haunted quality that reminded me of his sleepless nights when he first came back, but all in all, he looked like Nate. Whatever monster I encountered last night had receded away like a nightmare.

Nate broke the silence first, “Nora. Promise me that you’ll do one thing.”

“Okay…”

His eyes never left my face. “Ask Jack to give you some of his serum. You don’t need to take it long-term but that serum is one of the best ways to keep vampires from feeding on you. We can’t stand the stuff. And keep your traveling to the daylight hours. Don’t leave Diamond City at night anymore. I wouldn’t put it above my sire to start hunting for you in the city. He has better control of his bloodlust than I do.”

“So I have to keep looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life?”

“You do if you want to live.” He replied. “My sire takes pleasure in hurting me and now that you’re here, he will try to use you. That’s what he did by enthralling you. He knew I would trade myself to save you. But I should’ve known he’d twist the agreement around.”

“What d’you mean?”

“I was supposed to kill you Nora.” Nate said coldly. “I agreed to return to him if he agreed to not harm you.  The bastard then twisted the agreement to fit his twisted whims.  He wasn't going to kill you otherwise he would've went against our agreement, so he had me do it instead.  Because you survived, the deal we made is forfeit.  Neither of us are safe from him."

I mulled over what he said. It was really a Catch-22 kind of situation.

“You know there’s one way to end all of this.” I muttered.

“I know.” Nate said softly. “But despite what that bastard has done to me...I don’t think I can kill him.”

“Why not?”

Nate pursed his lips. He sat back down on the cot looking weary. “I _need_ him Nora. I can’t explain it. We've been together for two centuries. He’s beaten me, tortured me, enthralled me, and …” His voice crackled slightly and he brought his knees up to his chest, “... and raped me. But God help me, I can’t do it. I don’t know if its because of the thrall or because he’s my sire or because I’m weak. I can’t kill him and I'll suffer for the rest of eternity with that knowledge.”

My heart broke. I set down the receiver to openly sob into the hospital gown I wore. I don’t know why I didn’t suspect that Nate had been raped by that monster. He was one step shy of raping me and the thrall wouldn’t have let me say ‘no.’ I couldn’t imagine how Nate handled two centuries of that sort of life.

“Nate.” I said picking up the receiver again but he waved me off with a sharp gesture.

“Please … just go Nora. I’m done talking for now. We both need rest and as soon as you’re better, I want you to leave.”

“Nathan, please baby. Don’t push me away -- ”

His head snapped to mine when I said his name and he spat, “ _Don’t_ call me that. You need to leave now.”

“But--”

“GO.” He snarled. His eyes blazed with silver and his fangs glinted under the fluorescent lights. The change had been so sudden that I jolted back in the chair and rolled away from the console.

Before I could call for them, Nick was already at my side pushing me away. Jack picked up the receiver and said something to Nate that I couldn’t hear. He caught up to us before we reached the elevator to take us back to the labs and the small clinic where I was sleeping.

“I’m sorry.” I said. “I didn’t know --”

Jack waved aside my apology. “I didn’t think it was my place to tell you. His sire only calls him by his full name. After two centuries of hearing your name associated with abuse, I can only imagine the effect that would have on the psyche.”

Nick cleared his throat, “Doll, Jack says you should be clear to head back to Diamond City in a couple of days. Right now, you both need your rest. Edward’s left some of the journals that Nate’s kept over the years to help you understand his condition.”

I nodded but I barely heard him. None of this was fair. I spent all this time believing that my husband had left me and then died when the bombs fell. Now that I learned the truth, I was just expected to leave him here to be tortured some more at his sire’s hands? No. I refused to let that happen.

I killed Kellogg when he kidnapped my son I shot that bastard right in his smug face. Hell, with all of the tech in that guy’s brain, he was barely human anyway.

I didn’t care if this monster was a vampire. He destroyed my family. He hurt my husband. He played with my mind and my body with his twisted sexual coercion powers. Oh no. This bastard was gonna pay.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Creature schemes. Nick helps Nora realize some harsh truths. Nate and Nora have one more talk. Angst and drama ahoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey lovely readers. My update speed for all of my fics is a glacial pace. Long story short -- husband is unemployed and I've bumped up my work and overtime to 65-70 hours a week. Thank you for hanging with me. All work and no play makes AlexRuby an exhausted writer.

Chapter 15

**The Creature’s POV**

I licked the blood from my lips. The vintage wasn’t anything special; the blood belonged to a young woman who was no real beauty; however, she was the perfect chattel. This one would hardly be missed. She was a traveler and but lacked awareness and common sense. If I hadn’t come along, she would’ve been easy prey for the packs of radiated wild dogs that roamed the woods. I gave her a swift death. She didn’t even fight when I took her. How pathetic.

I tossed her body back onto the filthy sleeping bag that was laid out in front of the smoldering campfire. Whoever came across her body would assume she had been savaged by an animal. Nobody ever suspected that vampires existed. This woman’s death was just one more in a long line of untimely demises. It was quite liberating.

Just then, I caught someone else’s scent on the air and I disappeared behind a trio of thick, irradiated trees. A woman crested the hill coming from the west. Her tan skin was flushed from the exertion and her weather-beaten face held a decade’s worth of anxiety and grief. This woman was broken when I found her, and the broken ones made for such good pets.

“Hello?”

I moved swiftly behind her. The vein in her neck pulsed with her lifeblood and I extended my fangs in anticipation of tasting her.

“Maria.” I said evenly.

The woman jumped nearly two feet into the air and whirled around to face me. “Oh God!"

I gave her a toothy smirk. “Not quite.”

I extended my influence out into her. I didn’t have to apply much force through the thrall to breach her thoughts.

“Did you do as I asked?”

Her dark eyes were glassy from my influence and her bronze skin bore a slight sheen as her body unsuccessfully fought against my influence. Maria, the ever-watchful sentry for the Cabots, had been under my influence for the past fifteen months and she’s proven far more useful than I had originally anticipated.

“How did you make contact?” I asked.

Her lips curled into a demented smile. “I pickpocketed the ghoul’s key card when he came by to give us the new patrol orders from Mr. Cabot. While everyone was asleep, I broke into the super’s office and relayed your message to him.”

“And how many retainers do we have?”

“Seventeen, including myself.” She replied automatically.

“Good. Tell your team that we attack tomorrow night at midnight.”

“Of course master.” She purred.

Delicious heat pooled in my loins. There was nothing that appealed to me more than a strong woman whose spirit I could break.

I walked towards the Captain and grabbed her firmly by the chin. She moaned softly and looked at me with frightened, lustful eyes. I bit into my own wrist and red-black blood bubbled up from the wound.

Maria’s eyes darkened in anticipation and she latched onto my wrist sucking at the wound moaning in hedonistic pleasure. She took two or three gulps and then I pulled my wrist away and licked the wound so it would heal quickly. My head lolled back and I closed my eyes. I luxuriated in the pleasure as my influence mingled with her aura and her mind. A voice in my head demanded that I take her right then and there beneath the moonless sky, but I dismissed my baser nature. There was a time for sex and there’s a time for work. Tonight’s exchange was strictly professional, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it.

She pulled away and wiped at her mouth with her forearm and then made a lurid show of licking my blood off her skin with slow, languid strokes of her tongue. Then she tilted her head to expose her carotid artery. I shook my head and tutted. That spot was too obvious and it ran too big of a risk for me to accidentally slip up and kill her.

Maria’s eyes wavered for just a moment as doubt crept into her mind. All I had to do was force my will into her through our bond and that uncertainty snapped like a piece of string. She slipped off her breastplate and rose her threadbare military fatigue so her midriff was exposed. Several of my other bites peppered her flank and her stomach. Many of the puncture marks were still black and blue.

“Please Master.” She murmured. “I freely offer my blood to you. Take what you will.”

I fell to my knees and pulled her hips towards my face. She unconsciously rubbed herself against my chin and nose and I briefly considered taking blood from her femoral artery instead. The spot was far more pleasurable but it did cause the victim to bleed out if not taken care of immediately.

No. I couldn’t get greedy.

I sunk my fangs into her flesh just above her hip bone. She cried out in exquisite pain. Each time I lapped my tongue over the wound, I felt her body tense as waves of pleasure rolled through her core. I smelled her arousal, her desire, her animalistic need for release.

“Please Master.” She moaned in a keening whine. “I’m yours. Make me yours. Please.”

I dug my fingers into her fleshy buttocks. The instinct to drain her dry flashed through my mind. After all, she had already consented. I could take her now and make her my progeny. Her mind was more pliable than Nathan’s and assuming the transition worked, she’d be a competent foot solider. Then again, I didn’t have the time nor the patience to train a fledgling after all of the work I had done on Nathan. I had one pet; even if he was disobedient, willful, and stubborn. Taking on a second one would be too much of a hassle.

I lapped my tongue across the bite several times until the blood congealed, then I rose to my feet and I looked into the guard’s eyes. Her pupils were unnaturally dilated but I searched for the glimmer of life that existed deep within.

“Go back to Parsons. Send the message to Lorenzo that the attack will happen tonight. In a few short hours, our God will be freed.”

“Yes Master.” She murmured in demure supplication.

When I broke eye contact with her, the Captain stumbled slightly and swayed on her feet. She shook her head several times as though she could shake herself free from my control. And when she finally glanced up to where I had been standing, I was long gone.

* * *

**Nora’s POV**

“Doll?”

“Hmm?”

Nick cleared his throat. “You’ve been muttering to yourself for the last half an hour. You doin’ okay with —“ He gestured his hand vaguely at the pile of leather-bound journals that Nate had Edward pass on to me.

Truth be told, I wasn’t doing okay. Not at all. Reading through my husband’s private thoughts was already discomforting, but the words I read didn’t seem like they were really his. My husband had demons hiding in his closet like the rest of us, but he wasn’t a cruel, malicious man. Or at least, that’s what I once thought.

I couldn’t finish reading through the first journal. The horrors he talked about in terms of the survivors slowly ghoulifying, their skin peeling off their bodies as they mutated into the malformed, horrible creatures that now lurked in nearly every nook and cranny in the wasteland; the raping and looting, the murder, the anarchy, it all seemed like I was reading a work of fiction.

But worst of all, Nate’s words reminded me that he wasn’t my husband. Not anymore. I made it through half of the first journal before I couldn’t take it anymore. Day after day, entry after entry, I watched as my husband fell and became consumed by the darkness.

“You have that look again Nora.”

“No I don’t.” I replied vaguely as I skimmed through one of Nate’s more recent journals. Although his recent entries were more rational, more familiar, there was still that uncomfortable undertone of hunger and pain.

Nick’s gaze appraised me. The smoke from his lit cigarette wafted up in a fine plume and a shiver crept down my back. He didn’t have to say anything for me to know that he was reading my body language. My heartbeat skipped a couple beats as I tried not to telegraph anything else.

“Look. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I sniffed, closing the book and setting it onto a pile with the rest.

Nick sat back in the metal folding chair and rested his cigarette in a thick glass ashtray. He laced his fingers together, metal entwined with synthetic, and steepled his forefingers and rested them against the tip of his nose. His eyes seemed to glow brighter and I schooled my face to a neutral mask.

He picked up Nate’s first journal. The pages were falling out and yellowing. The leather chord which held it closed lost its elasticity and crumbled into even more pieces despite Nick’s gentle handling. He held the journal up to me and indicated it with a nod of his head.

“Have you read this one?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“All of it?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you doing this Nick?”

Pain and guilt flashed across his face. He set the journal down, stood up from his seat, and came over to sit at the foot of my bed.

“You need to keep perspective here Nora.” He said reasonably. “Nate wanted you to read his journals so you’d understand what’s happened to him.”

“I know that.” I snapped. “I’m not stupid.”

Nick ignored my biting comment and maintained the same reasonable tone, "He also wanted you to read them so you’d stop caring about him, stop loving him. He probably thought if he showed you the worst of him then it would be easier for you to leave him here.”

“That’s ridiculous. He’s not pushing me away.” I tried to sneer but my voice felt hollow and unconvincing.

“Wouldn’t you if you were in his position?” Nick asked.

“No. I wouldn’t.”

“Really?” The disbelief in Nick’s tone was clear and just as irritating as ever.

“Really.” I snapped. “And so what? What’s your point Nick?”

“My point is that things can’t go back to the way they were before. He’s changed Nora, and he wants you to see the true extent of how he’s changed.”

“Oh yeah,” I drawled sarcastically, “I figured the pointy fangs, sharp claws, and the crazy eyes were kinda dead giveaways but thanks for enlightening me.”

Nick’s eyes narrowed and his tone became more insistent, almost stern. “And what about the people he brutalized and fed on? What about the infant he cut from his mother’s womb? Or the countless men and women he seduced so he could feed on them? Were those dead giveaways as well?”

My blood chilled in my veins. “His sire made him do that.” My voice was low and sharp.

“You think so?” His tone wasn’t mocking or patronizing, but I wanted to slug him in the face anyway.

“Nate is the victim here!” I snarled.

Nick shrugged noncommittally. “There are a lot of victims here Nora. I’m just trying to help you see the truth so you don’t become one as well.”

“I can take care of myself.”

Now his tone took on perceptible edge, “And yet his sire used your husband’s closeted bisexuality to goad you into attacking him. He played on your weakness Nora and you could’ve died because of it. You’ve got to think all of this through. Piece it out like you would any other case and with any other perp.”

I felt the echo of the monster’s fangs as he bit into me like an overripe peach. I remembered how my life ebbed away with each frantic heartbeat and the fear that radiated through me when he offered me his blood.

_Drink or you will die._

And I drank. And just like that I handed over my free will to that monster. I gave in.

“Nate wouldn’t do that to me.” I whispered .

“He did though.” Nick replied gently. “Vampire nature or not, he attacked you.”

“He didn’t mean it.” My throat tightened and I knew how ridiculous I sounded, but I kept on anyway. “He didn’t mean to hurt me Nick. He was injured. He was out of his mind. I was drugged by the thrall. I asked for it. I was damn near writhing against him, and —”

Nick winced at my words and he shook his head, “Nora, no…”

My throat clenched shut and I dropped the other journal I had been reading onto the starchy hospital blanket. Tears welled up in my eyes and I squeezed them shut. A sob tore out of my throat and I took in a shuddering breath.

“Fuck you Nick…”

He moved to me faster than his 6’2” frame should’ve allowed him to move and he pulled me into his chest. The events of that night came flooding back to me. I remembered my husband’s hands on my body, how his arousal pressed up against me, and how badly I wanted him to take me, to feed on me, just so I could experience sweet, blissful release.

“Oh my God.” I choked out and I balled my fingers into Nick’s dress shirt and pressed my face into the crook of his shoulder.

The full weight of the events from the past week came crashing down onto my head. I felt dirty. I felt violated. I felt exactly like the women who came to me: women who were at the end of their rope and were too tired and scared to go back to that hell in which their husbands drank too much and lashed out at them. I pressed my palms into my eye sockets hoping to press the traitorous tears back into my eyes.

God I hated feeling helpless. I was the confident one. The ‘fake it until you make it’ type of woman. But I couldn’t fake anything now. I was raw. I was hurt. I was pissed and I wasn’t sure how I could reconcile that.

“What am I going to do Nick?”

“What d’you want to do, doll?”

I pulled away and I looked at him. His eyes looked troubled, almost sorrowful, but I saw fear and uncertainty there too.

“I want to go home Nick. I want to go back to Diamond City. But I can’t leave without knowing that Nate is going to be okay. As long as his sire is around, he’s at risk.”

“So are you.”

I waved off his concern but Nick caught my hand with his own and cradled my hand between his. The touch felt far more intimate than he probably meant and a shiver crept down my neck.

“Please Nora. I know you want to hunt the creature down and administer your own brand of justice, but he is not like Kellogg. We can’t just gun him down.”

“Not with that attitude.” I quirked my eyebrow defiantly despite my tears but Nick’s expression didn’t change. He looked seriously scared. I had never seen Nick — the human or the synth — look scared.

“I don’t want to lose you Nora.”

He spoke those words with such sincere vulnerability and I felt conscious of how good Nick’s fingers felt against my skin. It felt too good. I gently withdrew my hand from his and tucked them safely beneath the blankets.

The silence that fell between us was thick enough to cut. I felt Nick’s eyes on me; my face burned in shame and in lust and in guilt. The thrall was out of my system but I still felt the cloying effects of something in me, something that made me feel both exhilarated and awful at the same time.

“You should get some sleep.” He murmured. “I’m going to check in with Jack and Edward so we can leave at first light.”

I nodded mutely and handed Nick the journals that were scattered over my lap. I laid back on the over-stuffed hospital pillow and I closed my eyes. I touched my gold wedding band with my thumb. Two hundred years ago I made a vow to Nate: till death do us part. I loved Nate. I still love Nate. But things change. We’ve changed.

Nick flicked off the lights in the small hospital room and closed the door gently behind him. I sat in the darkness and firmly grasped my wedding band. There was a moment of resistance but then the band slid easily up to my knuckle. I pushed it back down and buried my hands back in the blankets as though I could stop everything and live in a bubble where I didn’t have to make any more decisions.

But that wasn’t life. I threw the covers off me, slipped my bare feet into my boots, and silently opened the door.

It was now or never. Nate may have all eternity but I didn’t.

* * *

**Nate’s POV**

I dropped the shriveled blood bag onto the floor. My knees trembled and I staggered away from my bed and collapsed into the corner of the room. I cradled my claws against my chest and pressed myself into the corner like a terrified animal.

The bloodlust was so damn strong. All of the years of control that I had built up to fend off my thirst broke like a dam as soon as soon as I fed from Nora. I felt like a fasting man who just consumed a three course meal; I was fit to burst but damn it, I wanted more.

My body pulsed with energy. The raider who had donated the blood (albeit involuntarily) had been a Psycho addict and chem-induced adrenaline fired through my synapses creating a sort of contact high. It felt wonderful … and it felt dangerous. I wanted to rip and tear into flesh. I wanted to rake my talons through someone’s stomach just to feel the hot squelching wetness as their entrails hit the floor.

“C’mon. Keep it together.” I muttered to myself.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe in and out for a count of three. Jack once suggested that I do something mentally stimulating to keep my mind off my thirst, and it turned out that it really helped. So I began reciting the elements of the periodic table in alphabetical order just to take my mind off everything.

“Actinium, Aluminum, Americium, Antimony, Argon…”

My muscles relaxed and the engorged veins in my hands and face disappeared beneath my skin. I felt the minor muscles in my face release their tension and my fangs slipped back into my gums.

“…Gold, Hafnium, Hassium, Helium…”

My back and shoulders released their pent up tension and I sank against the wall feeling exhausted. It was too bad that sunrise was still five hours away.

“Nate? Are you awake?” My wife’s alto voice, husky and appealing as ever, came over the intercom.

I stiffened again when I heard her voice. Half-insane, scattered memories of that night flashed behind my eyes like a broken movie reel. I felt her soft skin against me. Her hard nipples raking across my own bare chest as her cries and sobs appealed to the predator inside me. I tasted her on my tongue and the demon I tried to repress broke through my feeble distractions.

“Oh Nate.” She sighed. Her voice was pitying and patient. She used the same voice with our son when he was teething. That voice said, “Oh hon. I know you’re in pain but it will get better. You just wait.”

I licked my lips to wet them so I could speak and I tasted the Psycho-laced blood that was still there. I turned away and wiped at my face with my hand. Dammit! Pull yourself together!

“Why are you here?” I rasped. The contact high of the chem made my words sound more threatening than I had intended.

“I’m leaving in the morning. Nick and I — we — we are going back to Diamond City. And I …” Her voice trailed off on a wave of uncertainty and fear. “…I’m sorry. This was a bad idea. I — I just needed… _wanted_ to talk to you once more.”

My internal clock told me that it was still sometime after midnight. I didn’t know if the synth detective slept or not but Nora had somehow given him the slip nonetheless. She shouldn’t be here. Dammit.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?”

I barked out a laugh. Sitting was a charitable description for my posture. Curled up in a fetal position like a scared child while wedged between the bed and the wall was a more accurate description.

My unkempt hair obscured my face as I held up the empty blood bag in the air. “Dinner time.” I said sardonically.

“Oh?” Nora sounded surprised. “Y-You drink from blood bags?”

“What else would I do?”

There was a beat of silence before Nora spoke. She sounded a little breathy and sped through her words like she was revealing a secret she had let build up inside her. “I don’t know…I guess…well … Nick said something about Edward keeping those raiders from the Creamery for you to feed on. I just kinda assumed that —“

“— Keep your assumptions to yourself.” I growled. “Those two men are still alive. Jack takes a couple pints from both of them, feeds them, lets them shower and get a few nights of rest in a proper bed, and then releases them. Most end up joining Maria’s forces as mercenaries and guards.”

I felt her gaze and I knew she was still unconvinced. I might’ve been the realist in the relationship but she had a cynical streak a mile long.

“According to you journal, you didn’t care as much about killing back then.”

“Yeah, well I was young.” I growled. “I didn’t have a high regard for humanity or for anything else after I turned.”

“But that —"

I cut her off before she could build up her case against me. “God Dammit Nora! Is that why you came here? Just so you can remind me of my past? I kept journals for a reason. I never wanted to forget what I did. I’ve fucked up many times in these two centuries of existence, but I sure as hell don’t need you reminding me of my failures.”

“But — “

My head snapped up and I turned my frustration outward. If she wanted to paint me as a monster then I’d let her see exactly that. I rose to my feet, crossed the room in three steps and stopped right in front of the eight inch thick plexiglass that separated us. To her human eyes, it looked like I just blurred through the space.  
Nora jumped and dropped the receiver. She mouthed the words “Holy fuck” and then picked up the receiver again. I had shaken her confidence and there was true fear in her eyes. It was the same fear I saw when I had attacked her.

“You have no right to judge me.” My tone was icy.

She held up her hand in surrender. “No I’m not! I — I don’t!”

“Bullshit! I smacked the plexiglass with the heel of my palm in frustration and the it cracked out in a spider’s web formation but (thankfully) remained intact.

I closed my eyes and made a conscious effort to take a few deep breaths. Once I was suitably calm, I sat back down and put my head in my hands.

“Nora. I didn’t give you my journals so you could cross examine me. You are not in court. You have no right to judge what I have done. God knows I judge myself enough for the both of us.”

I heard the dull scrape from Nora moving the chair closer again.

“I’m sorry.” She breathed but I waved off her apology. She had no reason to apologize. I didn’t deserve it.

“I’m not the man you remember Nora.” I continued. “Yes I have killed. I will probably kill again. When I was younger, I enjoyed killing. I was in so much pain that it gave me a feeling of control to hurt others. Eventually I grew tired of the fear and havoc, but I never stop liking it. It’s part of my nature Nora. I can’t change what I am. I can only fight against it.”

“Yet you didn’t fight against it when it was me.”

“I couldn’t.” My voice came out as a whisper.

“Because of the thrall?”

God I wish I could’ve blamed it all on that bastard. But that wouldn’t be the truth.

“Your blood is potent. You saw that when we last spoke. My skin had been flayed to the bone and a couple of days later I was almost fully healed. I would’ve had to hunt — to completely drain someone — to get results like that. So, no. The thrall might’ve incited me to feed but I wouldn’t have stopped if it wasn’t for Nick. I would’ve killed you.”

“What about Jack? He’s Pre-War. Why don’t you have the same reaction around him?”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “I do. Well…I do when he hasn’t taken his serum. His blood is strong but he’s also been alive for over four hundred years. His blood isn’t as pure as yours. The serum he takes to extend his life has changed his blood composition. When he’s actively taking the serum, I can’t feed on him.”

Nora blinked dumbly at me. “Four hundred years? What? How?”

I frowned. “You didn’t know?”

“No!” She exclaimed. “How would I know that?”

I felt uneasy. I knew that Jack didn’t publicize his true age, nor did he made known what his serum truly does, and I worried that I had overstepped a boundary.

“You cannot tell anyone else.” I urged. “Please. Jack isn’t a mercenary like Edward. He’ll be vulnerable if this gets out.”

Nora nodded, still dazed by the revelation, then she furrowed her brows and scrutinized me. “You wanted him to give me some of his serum. Would that make me … like him?”

“No. It would taint your blood just enough that your blood would be unpalatable. If my sire tries to track you down in Diamond City, all he’d have to do is follow your scent. The serum acts as a masking agent. You’d have to habitually use the serum like Jack before it would have an effect on your lifespan.”

Nora considered my words and then she said, “You really care about him.”

“Edward and Jack took me in after …” I shook my head at the memory. “They are good people Nora.”

She nodded and folded her hands in her lap. I noticed that she was fingering her gold wedding band by twisting the metal around her digit.

“Nate? Can I ask you a personal question.”

I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. I already knew the question she was about to ask. Yet, I had no idea how to respond.

“I suppose.”

“Have you always been bisexual?”

I took in a breath and exhaled it out in a long, slow puff. I hadn’t told Nora about my sexuality. I figured that I could hide in anonymity as a bisexual man in a heterosexual relationship. It wasn’t something about myself that I was trying to repress or deny, but it also wasn’t something that I wanted our neighbors whispering about. I suppose now it didn’t matter.

“My sexuality has never stopped me from loving you Nora, nor has it stopped me from trying to provide for you and for our family, and —“

— “Nate. Please. Just answer the question.”

“Yes. I have always been this way. I knew this about myself ever since I was a teenager.”

Nora nodded as though I had confirmed a secret suspicion. “And you didn’t tell me.”

I looked down at my feet again. “I didn’t want you to think less of me. Your mother would’ve had kittens had she found out. I doubt she would’ve been thrilled to hear her good, God-fearing Catholic daughter was married to a faggot.”

Nora sighed. She put her hand, palm up, against the bottom of the plexiglass window. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel comfortable telling me this.”

I put my hand over hers up against the window. My thin, pale fingers dwarfed over hers and I wanted nothing else in that moment then to feel her warmth and to feel her touch once more. But it was impossible. What was the point of fantasizing about something like that knowing it could never happen.

I pulled my hand away and a stiff bitterness settled over me.

“Nora…” My voice faltered so I cleared my throat and tried to start again. “There’s nothing else I can tell you that will make you feel better. And even more, there’s nothing I can do to take away what I did to you. So why torture yourself?”

“I’m not torturing myself.” She replied indignantly. “I just want to know that you’re happy.”

I snorted but it lacked true sarcasm. “You wanna know the last time I was happy Nora?”

“Of course."

I thought back to my human life, back to the times that I locked away in the deep recesses of my psyche, and I swallowed the burgeoning pain.

“The morning before I died, you and I had a rare moment to take a walk before I went to work. Codsworth was watching Shaun and we took a walk around the reservoir. I had finished a double shift the night before and I was dog-tired but I knew you wanted to watch the sunrise. You loved the morning; sunrise was always your favorite time of the day, and so I loaded up our thermoses with coffee and we watched the sun rise over Sanctuary Hills. It was simple. It was perfect. And it was the last sunrise I ever saw.”

Nora’s eyes welled with tears. She brushed them away but she huddled in on herself as she fought her emotions. I used her momentary distraction to brush non-existent lint off my pants while wiping at my own eyes.

I rose from my chair and walked back to the bed. With my back to Nora, I took some shuddering breaths before clearing my throat.

“You should probably go back to your room Nora.” I said. “Jack should be by your room before sunrise to give you a dose of his serum. After that …”

Nora’s voice came through the intercom riding on a wave of confidence, warranted or not. “We can help you Nate — Nick and I. We have friends back in Diamond City, allies who are willing to fight. We can stop your sire.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in. Stop my sire? Oh God no…

I whirled around to firmly crush her ludicrous idea but the observation room was empty. Our gold wedding bands sat on the console. I looked at them and a tempest fueled by my rage tore through me. That bastard had taken everything from me. Why shouldn’t he die? Maybe I was trying to protect him because of the sick co-dependent relationship he’s forged with me. After all, we were the only two vampires that I knew of. If he died, I’d be all alone.

His death would rob me of a crucial thing in my life. If he died. I’d have nobody else to turn my hatred towards except myself.


End file.
